Everybody agrees that you should only give a baby special baby-painkillers, and everybody agrees you shouldn’t give too much, or too soon.
The question is, what is too soon or too much? Even my husband and I disagree on this matter. For instance, our 14 month old son will be getting his shots next week. Previous shots have given him an uneasy half day. I can’t really tell how much pain he’s in, as he is a tough little fellow, but it was pain, alright.
So, when he gets his next shot, I want to give him a baby painkiller beforehand. My reasoning is: why suffer at all, if you can prevent it?
My husband, on the other hand, wants to wait and see and only give a painkiller if the pain gets “too much”, because painkillers " can’t be good for a baby".
A few weeks ago, our baby had a cold and was miserable. My husband didn’t want to give a painkiller because it might obscure symptoms. I did give one, because I think his body can fight better if he has been able to sleep and eat well.
I’m with you. Especially if baby is trying to sleep at night. The way I see it is that if he is pain, he won’t sleep well. If he doesn’t sleep well, he will take longer to recover.
I also agree with you. I don’t see the need in letting a child be in pain unecessarily. Our doctor recommends giving a dose of Tylenol before coming in for shots to ward off fever. Obviously, you don’t want to overdo medicines, but I don’t consider it overdoing it if your baby is sick or in pain. Just my 2 cents.
There’s pain and there’s pain. If the little dude is cranky due to his shots or what have you, I say let him ride it out for a day. If he’s wailing and completely coming unglued, that’s a different issue and should be addressed.
I think our nation is screwed up in both directions when it involves pain management. Some don’t want any inkling of discomfort and others wouldn’t toss you a vicodin if you got hit by a Mack truck. There’s middle ground somewhere. Of course, you know your li’l tyke better than we do, and no doubt his best interest is at heart. Good luck!
My pediatrician recommended giving my daughter a bit of baby Tylenol before her shots, and to continue it for about 24 hours afterwards if she seemed a bit fussy or lethargic. So far she’s handled her shots like a champ.
At 14 months I would think a little pain reliever would be fine for him, especially since immuno shots can cause side symptoms, and those can be managed with a little extra tlc and otc.
I had no qualms about giving Tylenol or Advil to my toddlers if I thought they were in the slightest bit of pain. I’m pretty sure the doctor specifically recommended giving a painkiller before and after vaccinations.
Ask your doctor about it. When my kids were little the instructions on the children’s meds didn’t list the dosage for children under 2, but I got the correct dosages from the doctor. Be careful not to overdose with Tylenol, in particular.
I generally gave Eldest ibuprofen just before his shots after the first rounds; Youngest had no trouble with shots so he didn’t get it.
Ibuprofen takes longer to kick in but I find it works better for fever, its toxic dose level is further away from its effective dose level than is the case for paracetamol, and there was at some time a suggestion that paracetamol given in the first year of life was associated with later asthma onset. Correlation is not causation, wet streets don’t cause rain and so on, but it was then just being mentioned and I could hardly wait on the research to tease the connection out.
I am entirely not Dutch in this way: I think life brings plenty of pain all by itself and have not found seeking it out to be particularly character building. However, I am alone in this attitude in my house. Dutch guys are IME in general less likely to treat mild symptoms and more likely to favor toughing it out.
Dutch guys are also more honest, so I shall refrain from suggesting that you just give the kid the ibuprofen and don’t bring it up, since Dearly Beloved will have forgotten all about it by then.
In principle, though, how much pain is too much for a pre verbal child really amounts to “is distracting enough that the child has trouble concentrating on things other than the pain for more than a couple minutes”. Also, “Can not sleep because of it”, because sleep is important for getting better.
I think that Tylenol, when given in the correct dosage as recommended by your pediatrician, is perfectly safe. I also don’t see any reason for my 12mo old son to spend a day (or night) miserable because I refuse to give him a perfectly safe drug that can make him feel better.
We’ll give him a dose if the doc says that a fever or significant soreness is a likely side effect, otherwise we wait and see if he’s actually in pain before giving him the meds.
BTW, I think denying the child a painkiller because it will “mask” symptoms is silly, the point is to mask a few symptoms so that he feels better. Tylenol is not going to make you child seem well when he’s deathly ill.
It used to be par for the course at that age (ending with his 2-year appointment) that the nurse would show up with a dropper of Tylenol alongside the vaccines for pain management. I agree with the OP. As long as you’re following your pediatrician’s directions, a little Tylenol isn’t going to hurt.
In my very limited experience, babies seem to deal with discomfort far more poorly than older kids, even toddlers. I don’t know if it had to do with a shorter attention span, his perception of pain (which may have changed) or what, but when my son was a baby, he’d shriek his head off at the slightest discomfort. At that point, keeping him calm was very important - he’d scream, upset himself because he was screaming, then scream some more because he was upset that he was screaming.
I’m not generally an advocate for medicating kids, but if withholding Tylenol is going to create a vicious cycle of discomfort and as long as it’s not something you do all the time, there’s no reason not to do it.
Yes. I didn’t see any reason to withhold harmless pain medication that might make a child more comfortable. I remember giving them Tylenol or Advil for teething pains, for pain from ear infections, and for fevers. I was always careful with the dosages and prompt about taking them to the doctor if their condition didn’t improve.
If your husband is that concerned about little baby dropping dead from his symptoms being masked by Tylenol, then perhaps he should advocate for no immunizations at all. But, if you’re going to stab the little guy, inject a fluid into his body which can cause swelling, which in turn causes pain he hasn’t learned how to handle yet, I think the decent thing to do is to throw him a small, small margin of relief.
It doesn’t make him any stronger to require him to needlessly suffer. Kids have parents for a reason: to provide for them, take care of them, protect them and what not. Choosing not to give a child some minor relief when it’s in your power safely do so is, well, barbaric.
FWIW, during my sons’ first year, I gave him a dose of baby-Tylenol (paracetamol, in Dutch) about once, twice a month. if it had been entirely up to me, I might have given it five times more, and if it had been up to my husband, about five times less.
On a related note, can I pit unhelpful medical baby sites that say stuff like “Don’t give Tylenol too often?” Just say what too often is, damnit! A number!
They are only spreading fear of painkillers with such vague, yet alarming remarks, instead of promoting sensible use as they probably intend to.
“Don’t give Tylenol too often” isn’t helpful, I agree. The instructions that come with the medicine should tell you the maximum daily dose and give the maximum number of days before you should consult a doctor.
As **Marienee **pointed out, the toxic dose of paracetamol/acetaminophen is not far away from the therapeutic dose. So it’s easier to give a harmful overdose with paracetamol than with ibuprofen. In my personal experience ibuprofen works faster and better, anyway.
There is discussion now about reducing the level of acetaminophen in a dose so that it is not as easy to overdose. I am also on the side of “don’t overdo it” when it comes to pain meds, but I also don’t suffer needlessly or allow my kids to do so either. (yes, I am Dutch also ) In doing research about kids pain medication the medical consensus is that if you stay under the label dosages, it is very safe. People start getting into trouble when they combine medications and don’t check the individual ingredients, but ‘straight’ Tylenol or Advil/ibuprofin is easy enough to control.
Dose by weight, not age. I also prefer to alternate doses of Tylenol with Ibuprofin if I am dosing continuously. For shots I usually give one dose an hour beforehand, then another at bedtime if he seems to be in pain or running a fever.
“Too much” is of course ambiguous, but IMO I have seen parents give Tylenol every time the kid cries or won’t sleep, saying it is teething. That to me is an over reliance and goes into the ‘too much’ territory. For something like shots, when there is obviously going to be a specific cause of pain, it is a no-brainer to give a little Tylenol. Sometimes they get multiple shots and ones that I find painful as an adult - lord knows I take ibuprofin when I get a tetanus shot!
I think the real question this brings up is are the parents using Tylenol and other meds to “mask” these symptoms because they can’t be bothered.
I’m not saying any of this pertains to the above posters, but if you’re talking about the question for the question’s sake, it is a legitimate concern. Could the child’s discomfort be handled with distraction or some other way?
Agreed. What bothers me is the gap between those instructions, and how little the average, responsible, goodwilling parent uses baby painkillers. There is more “risk” for such parents to underuse pain meds then then to overuse them, in my opinion.
Of course, I’m not talking about the kind of irresponsible parent from Marxxx’s example.
) In doing research about kids pain medication the medical consensus is that if you stay under the label dosages, it is very safe. People start getting into trouble when they combine medications and don’t check the individual ingredients, but ‘straight’ Tylenol or Advil/ibuprofin is easy enough to control.