Does calprofen wear off after 4 hours?

[Rooandtwo]

My DD’s sleep has gone backwards in the last month. She’s 7 months, just, and it’s not been worse in a consistent progressive way it’s more all over the shop. The last week has been bad consistently though and the suspects are teething, starting solids, developmental things etc.. I do not want to give calpol or calprofen unnecessarily. We know that our daughter is teething (chewing everything, screeching to herself etc though no red cheeks) but we are less sure this is the reason she is beings fussier and waking more crying at night. Part of the reason I have doubted it was teething is that if I give her a dose and then a feed to get her down, she still only sleeps about 3.5 hours. This is nothing compared to the stretches she used to regularly do - 5 would be a minimum almost. So this is very long winded but what I want to know is does it wear off that fast or does this mean it’s something else. I really don’t want to over medicate especially as I’ve no idea how long this will go on for.

Its probably down to teething and starting solids x

Yes I think so too but wondered mainly if calpol is so short lived for most people in terms of helping babies sleep?

Calpol itself doesn't really help babies sleep and I think it does wear off after few hours. Maybe 4 not 100% sure

Yes in the same way as taking ibuprofen as an adult, it wears off within the 4 hour window before you can take an other dose.

If she's teething you could try alternating - so I do calpol before bed, then ibuprofen as in my DDs case it's 5ml calpol and 2.5ml ibuprofen so less to get down a crying baby who has woken, then try a teething powder if she wakes again, then calpol if she wakes again.

Ok. So she had ibuprofen 2 hours ago and has just woken again. Is teething that painful it wakes them even when they had it that short a time ago?

Maybe I’ve phrased my question badly. What I’m really worried about is that this isn’t teething and is more of a long term regression.

Just checking that you are aware that calprofen is ibuprofen and is different to calpol which is paracetamol. Some posters have talked about Calpol and alternating with ibuprofen. Just wanted to check that there wasn’t confusion where you end up giving calprofen and another form of ibuprofen.

Yes I’m aware of that. I don’t know why but I’m very nervous of giving too much of these things. So whilst I know I can alternate, whilst not knowing a)how long a teething episode disrupting sleep this much could last and b) if this is the cause or if it’s an unrelated sleep regression. I know no one can tell me either way.

I think if Calpol or calprofen help her sleep then it is pain related. If they make no difference it is a regression iyswim

Yes, I do swym. I’m just having trouble feeling sure it’s helping. The two times I gave her a dose last night she did the longest stints but they were still only 2.5hr so the trend is still worsening over the last few days. My gut says pain though because my sense is she is trying to sleep. I hear her whinging and fidgeting a while before she starts yelling for me iykwim. I’m just praying this pattern isn’t here for too long, and doesn’t get worse from here 😓

It definitely wears off after 4 hrs. When DD was that age and teething badly we'd alternate them and space the doses out in the day so she could have more at night. It can definitely wake them up if it's bad.

Well that’s the other thing, although she’s fussy in the day I don’t feel the need to dose her up she is just a little high maintenance and needs to feed a lot, contact nap/distraction. I think I just need to trust my gut more on how much pain relief is ok.

Pretty sure it's a sleep regression. Most babies have their longest stint of sleep at the beginning of the night - then they may wake every 2hrs.

How does your child fall asleep? Do they use a dummy?