Would you use sedatives?

[LilianGish]

Quite surprised to hear that some parents would use sedatives to help young children sleep. Wondered how common this was - it would never have occurred to me to do so, I didn't even realise they were so freely available. Are they for parents who can't be bothered to establish a sleep pattern and don't want to be disturbed or am I just missing a trick?

olive.

We've got one of those plastic storage containers with a lock on it that is Mummy's Treasure Chest.

Calpol, Medised, Piriton, Nurofen, Eurax cream, Vicks, Karvol refills, Olbas oil, etc.

I keep it topped up for nights like this!

I don't see why not when kids are feeling rough.

I mean, when I feel ropey, sleep helps me heal.

It's the best thing.

I slug a couple of Benedryl myself on nights like this, why not the kids?

Medised does taste vile though and you may have to resort to bribery to get it down them.

Whenever DD1 gets a chest infection - usually once a year - and has to go on antibiotics, I pick up a large Dairy Milk bar with the prescription or a box of Jaffa cakes for bribes.

no i wouldn't use anything

alas none of it works on ds. and if he has a temp the only thing that works is max dose of ibuprofen.
imagine how many drugs i have tried....

mine like the tast expat.

dd1 isnt too happy with the generic piriton though. think its a lloyds pharmacy version.

(i remember my mum giving me kaolin and morphine) it was legal in the 70s

Mine hate Medised, especially DD1, but she is getting to understand the bribery system so there's hope .

Thanks for the tip! I'll stay away from the generic Piriton. Fortunately they're still so young they can only have 2.5mL at a time so a bottle lasts a bit.

Because of the anxiety related to my PND, I fell into the habit of trying to be as prepared as possible for cold/flu season and it's just sort of carried on. I even keep a spare 2L bottle of Coke and 7Up in the hall cupboard in case of need (and a pack of Mayfair Smooths in case of Mum feeling anxious when they're ill. Bad, I know, but sometimes just knowing it's there if I need it helps me along).

South, my Mayan grandmother knew how to made laudanum. She'd keep withered poppies, prick their heads and put them in a clay crock near her wood stove mixed with I don't know what (corn syrup, probably) to sweat. Then she'd give it to you in a clay cup mixed with sugar and some corn liquor.

It worked!

This was in teh days before Medised and Piriton, of course .

i got some medinol i think the other week (when all 3 dd's were spiking temps) was colourless and dd1 preferred it to calpol. and was a lot cheaper than calpol lol.

Medinol . . . adds to stock up list

Both did better with ibuprofen for teething, but it didn't knock them out.

I get hayfever and sinusitis, and I know how it can interfere with sleep. Poor souls!

yes, we have (and still do) and I really have absolutely zero qualms about it.

dd1 had bad eczema as a toddler and by the age of 3 hadn't slept through - ever. Phenergan really helped her sleep without scratching all night.

Dd2 has SN and has been a terrible sleeper since she was 2.5, often getting up 8+ times every single night for months on end. Phenergan didn't work for her so she got Vallergan on prescription, and also Triclofos and Chloral Hydrate.

Ds was prescribed hydroxyzine for a week when he was 10 months old. I was seriously ready to drive my car into a tree due to horrendous sleep-deprivation with dd2 being up most of the night and ds having got into a pattern of waking up at 1am and crying & wanting attention until 5am - it was during the summer holidays so no chance of a daytime catch-up nap for me either. The hydroxyzine helped him back into a normal sleep pattern.

I find the whole angle of killing a child with an overdose of standard sedatives rather odd - with all the sedatives dd2 has been prescribed the paediatrician explicitly instructed us to double, triple or quadruple the dose if the amount originally prescribed didn't do the trick. She said that even drinking a whole bottle wouldn't do more than make someone have a really good sleep.

sea my mum has still got a couple of bottles of k&m.

i scoffed all my dad's weight loss amphetamines 20 years ago.

Yes, geek, I hear ya! Some SN's do have some serious sleep disruptions which can seriously compromise the health of their carers.

As I said, I work with an adult with Asperger's and she said she took Vallergan and other sedatives nearly every night growing up because her parents needed to be able to care for her, especially considering they also have another daughter with severe CP.

These drugs have their place.

But hey, I'm from a culture which promotes better living through chemistry .

My dad has to take a drug called Ativan daily to control his rampant hypertension - among other drugs. Apparently it's a sedative.

i have no idea what peter currently takes i have to take all his old morphone based pills down pharmacy this week to be destroyed.

as an aside I was given a double dose of Piriton to take with antibiolotics when I had cellulitis.

The antihistimines in Medised are there to help to dry up a runny nose btw. The sedative effect is almost more by way of being a side effect. That is somecases can be helpful

yes, when my eldest 2 had chicken pox i sedated both of them as it was so awful. Had to seriously beg the doc, then realised could get piriton over the counter so did that. For i think 2 nights. but it was worth it, they were both having a terrible time - spots in their eyes, throats, ears, everywhere, was awful, i felt sedatives were the only way forward and could have punched the doctor for not agreeing! ( it wasn't my usual GP, and when my uisual one came back, he said he would have presribed them in a second!)

My dad travels around with some swipe/chip card that tells what all he's taking in addition to his MedicAlert bracelet. He's also got coronary artery disease and has had a couple of heart attacks.

When I was at uni I nicked a couple of his Ativans .

I gave a dose of Medised to DS4 last week before I went out for the evening. He's 10 months old and is teething at the moment anyay, but I gave it to make sure he and DH had a settled evening until I got home.

I do find the British on the whole very reluctant to use medications.

peter needs a new medic alert, as his old one ivery out of date now

ASD children can have Melatonon on prescription

He definitely does, Lady!

And perhaps a small card in his wallet with the list of drugs he takes and dosages.

We give our ds and dd medised if they have a cold. Otherwise they just wake all night.

Ds has piriton sometimes( hayfever) and that has a very dozy affect on him.
However my friend gives it to her dd in the day for her hayfever, and she doesn't seem to have any sleepy side affects from it.

Also have another friend who's dd was prescribed valagan as she was having severe sleep problems. Only used it for a while though.

It does happen.
In normal families.