Medication at Childcare

[Mother Goose]

Does your child's child care centre have a policy where they will not give panadol and neurfen within 4 hours of each other? Or a "one but not the other" policy?.. especially keen to hear from anyone who works in child care (esp an ABC centre!).

Also about doses... why do they only go by the grid on the box and not the text about weight based doseage?

TIA

MG

[Arimeh]

MG -
I think DS's daycare just give the one dose, and then 4 hours later reassess him. If he does have a fever, they will ring me to doublecheck that I'm ok with them giving him drugs. But they give the dose that the pharmacist wrote on the box (I had to get a label for nurofen, panadol and SM33) and stuck it on the box, then they are allowed to dose him up.

(I cheat though, keep the same boxes and just replace with new bottles... )

[MantaRay]

In Qld, I think they are not allowed to give any medication, even homeopathic drops, without a pharmacists label. Even then the parent must fill out a medication form specifying the quantity to give, the last dose given and the time for the doses to be given at day care. It is a pain actually, but it is good that they are thorough.

[Mother Goose]

That's a good idea Mel! If I can't resolve this with them I might get the pharmacist at work to do me a label...
I was told that they will call me 4 hours post panadol to get permission for the neurofen even though I've already written it up... WTF? Sorry, I'm just a tad cross at the moment because they can't seem to understand the ingredients in the two meds are different and perfectly fine to have together... and that the dose is correct... And why, after 12 months and having done this many times before, are they only just questioning it now? And why call AFTER giving the med not before to seek clarification? Arg!

ETA: MR - yeah, we have to fill in a form here too which I did this morning but no restrictions about labels... yet!

[visitor1]

At DD1 FDC the medicine has to be in original box, and we write it in a medicine book the dose WE give, not the dose the box says, time we want it given and any other further instructions.

[Pandora]

... And why call AFTER giving the med not before to seek clarification? Arg!

Our centre has only done that once. Well, the tried to call but neither DH or I answered our mobiles the first time, so they had 2 staff members decide that he really did need to have it (which he did) and gave him the age based doseage. They kept ringing us too, so that we would know what was happening.
But their policy is to call first.

They wont go by weight for doseage because they cant weigh him there andd ont want to get it wrong, plus I'd rather not trust their maths.

NOt sure why they wont do the alternating panadol/neuofen thing, though my GP said its not recommended to do anymore and told me not to.

[MantaRay]

BTW, I think the needing a pharmacy label is a newish thing. We didn't used to have to do that but do now.

[Mother Goose]

Ray - they got me first go on the mobile so they could have gotten me first which is a PITA. We don't normally alternate panadol and neurofen - we give it at the same time as per Vic RCH guidelines. I agree about not trusting their maths but they should be able to trust MINE!

Kim, that is how we've done it in the past!

I went and picked DD up early and they gave her the neurofen before I got there. The Director went through the policy with me which was good because she realised they CAN give both panadol and neurofen which she didn't realise. But it also showed that they can't give it more than 2 days in a row without Dr orders which she didn't realise. And when we spoke with the girls in the room, two of them didn't even realise half the stuff in the policy! But then the Director told me to buy the bigger bottle of Panadol because then they'll give DD the larger amount - she didn't understand me when I told her they get more from the big bottle because it is a different concentrate (25mg per ml instead of 100 mg per ml in the smaller bottle). Eventually she agreed that if I brought the larger bottle in, they would give DD the amount I stipulate so I guess that is a plus.

This has been so frustrating! I'm only trying to make sure DD has the right amount of medication for her size! I wonder what they do for smaller children who are smaller than the average size for their age?

[mollycat]

I'm a family day carer and have jst had a look through the Childrens' Services Regulations (for NSW) basically it says:
licensee of a service must develop a policy concerning the administration of medication
medication is not administered to a child without written authorisation or authority from a parent of the child
medication is administered from the container in which it was originally packaged, being (in the case of a prescription medicine) a container that is labelled with the child's name, the prescribed dosage and the medicine's use by date
if necessary in an emergency to administer medication to a child that is being provided with the service without the prior consent of the child's parent, every attempt is made to secure that consent.

In reality your carers are just protecting themselves. If your child is that ill he/she needs lots of medication shouldn't they be at home. Sorry if that offends. If you really want to give your child both medications next time you are at the doctors have your doctor write a letter to give to the centre at least that way you are both covered and your child will get the medication he/she needs.

[Mother Goose]

Molly - I'm not offended. She isn't sick - she's in pain from Molar's breaking through and doens't cope well with pain hence the specific pain relief. All of the points you mentioned were followed prior to their phone call. The issue came down to miscommunication about their own medication policy and the dose I wanted compared to the box grid (I worked it out on the weight ratio as DD is above the 12Kg).

[meow]

As first aid officers they wouldn't be able to follow your dosage amount based on her weight sorry. They would need that dosage written for her from a prescription. As they can't weigh her that's why they need to use the age chart.