Reply With QuoteI dont know whether it's a valid argument for its use either?? But I suspect it has saved some children from serious harm or even death....
I would rather a child be drugged than seriously hurt.
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That may be the case but these things should be assessed/judged on a case by case basis. Nothing is black and white.
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I dont know whether it's a valid argument for its use either?? But I suspect it has saved some children from serious harm or even death....
I would rather a child be drugged than seriously hurt.
Last edited by nothing2lose; July 24th, 2012 at 12:28 PM. : typo
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And not even just intentional hurting of children. What about thing like car accidents and fires that could happen when a parent is chronically sleep deprived.
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Throughout the thread it seems people classify sleep as a "convenience". Come on guys... don't you remember those looooong nights of broken sleep that went on month after month after month? And you still have to function, SAFELY, during the day? Drive a car, make decision, care for a child?!?! Sleep, when it is broken to that extreme (and a lot of us have been there) is NOT a convenience. It is a necessity. If you have reached the end of your rope and you did what you had to do in order to get a few precious seconds, then well done for being a great mum. If you weren't at the end of your rope and you did it because you were too lazy to put the hard work in, that's a different story, but I doubt any of the mums here are in that category. Sometimes operating on no sleep is more dangerous than the risks we take to have sleep.
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My mum admitted she gave something like this to me when I was little, because I was a nocturnal baby lol. I know its not what the OP posted but I thought it was funny at the time - they used to do it way back then tooI couldn't bring myself to do it for sanity let alone convenience and actually didn't even think of it - and I had a VERY clingy, minimalist sleeping babe who would do her sleep cycle during the day and that was it, very unsettled. A pretty absent father and on my own for pretty much most of it, ended up in a M&B unit for two weeks, lost lots of weight because I barely ate. But never once gave her anything to 'make' her sleep. I considered it with my second when he had a horrible time overnight with teething, he'd cry and arch his back for hours on end, but he never took ANY medicine - was the best zip lock baby you've seen lol.
Last edited by BellyBelly; July 24th, 2012 at 12:57 PM.
Kelly xx
Creator of BellyBelly.com.au, doula, writer and mother of three amazing children
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i find it uncomfortbale just thinking about giving a child medicine to make them sleep so that you can sleep. it just doesnt sit right with me.
also, if we are saying that it is ok to do this if you are otherwise a great mother who has done everything well and proper and is at the end of her rope due to lack of sleep then isnt it doesnt really make sense seeing as though you cant give phenergan to a child under 2 and usually by the time they are 2 they usually sleep alot more than they did as newborns or within the first year.
i dont know, i dont mean to be judgemental.. i am really not a judgemental person generally but there is something in this that makes me uncomfortable. sorry.
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I don't think that makes you judgmental. I feel uncomfortable with the idea too. We all have to make our own decisions and choices as parents, and we're responsible for those, thats what we should focus on. But personally for me, I would feel like I am doing the wrong thing by my baby. And thats not saying others are, because its just how I feel, the belief I have for myself. I've also heard parents talk about how they leave their babies to sleep in their beds while they pick up their children from kinder. They are fine with that. I am not. But they are good people and I would never make judgmental comments to them.
Kelly xx
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Of course we remember what it's like! I have four kids and a husband that travels away.
I make a decision some days to NOT drive as I deem that unsafe. I make the decision to NOT drug my kids because that's unsafe!!
It's prioritising.
See my point?
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I don't think this is true - some children certainly sleep more at 2 than as babies, but I wouldn't think it's the majority.
Everyone makes the best decision for them and their family, and what is seen as a "convenience" by some may be seen as more important than that by others. I don't think it's fair to judge people whom we know nothing about. Sometimes children need something to calm or sedate them and I think it's good that there are medicines available for this (with instructions for safe doses).
Personally I only use medication as a last resort for anything. I offered phenergan to DD when we flew to the US but she wouldn't have a bar of it, so I didn't force the issue. She's never had it, but I still have the bottle in case we ever need it for anything.
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whilst I don't like the idea of giving a child a medicine for no reason other than to sedate them, I think that using a sedative medicine should not be discounted as lazy parenting all the time. For example a child anxious of flying, phenergan might make all the difference in allowing them to cope on the flight. Or for my eldest son who recently broke his arm. When it came to choosing a pain reliever in the middle of the night I always went straight to the codeine which has a sedative effect as well as a pain relief effect, rather than ibuprofen or panadol which would merely reduce the pain. Medicines aren't always used for the sole reason they were invented. Sedatives are frequently used for anxiety, asthma drugs to calm an irritible uterus, and yes, phenergan is used sometimes for it's sedative effect when it is not needed for any other reason. If a child hasn't slept in days due to illness or teething and has gotten themselves into an cycle of being too tired to sleep it's not that much of a leap to say that phenergan might be the thing that helps break that cycle.
Giving it because you are going to the movies, however, is ridiculous no matter how a parent justifies it to themselves.
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Really?? No-one told my children that.....
and but I think it is how the medication is used that makes it unsafe not the actual use of it.
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Phenergan doesnt work on my kids, none of the 'may cause drowsiness' meds do so to use it for sleep purposes would be pointless for us. But I do know people who do it.
As for using it to break a no-sleep cycle. In theory I guess its a valid point. In real life I dont neccesarily think it is; if you are sleep deprived to the point of considering medicating your child to sleep, you may not be in any state to control the use of said medication or to remember if/when you administered it. To yourself or anyone else. If it even works on your kids.
And thats a personal opinion coming from a mother of 3 under 2.5 who has only just now, 6 years after having my first baby, experienced what a night of 3 or more hours of sleep is. It never entered my mind to medicate them to sleep, if it had Im not sure if I wouldnt have atleast seriously considered it, but in the end Im confident I wouldnt have done it as I dont even like to give them pain relief unless its absolutely neccesary (especially nurofen). I was probably one of the most sleep deprived people on the planet in the last 6 years, looking back I wonder how I even managed to care for 3 kids (alone majority of the time) and function enough to drive, cook etc. Its a miracle I didnt kill any or all of us. The difference between the 'me' then and the 'me' now that Im getting on average 6 or more hours of straight sleep a night is absolutely amazing! But thats a whole other thread topic I think.
Last edited by Freya; July 24th, 2012 at 01:48 PM.
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They use it so they can go out and get drunk????? wow....
We used it for our 22mth old (at the time) on a long plane trip overseas but it just made her really sick and vomitedwhich made me feel terrible (DH's idea) and even though she slept most of the way (it was night time) we will never use it again.
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Definitely! Some people's scale of priority (based I guess on the severity of what they are going through) means using the drug has greater priority than the consequence and I absolutely cannot judge them for the (nor would I judge you for choosing differently).
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Yes exactly
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Lol this is funny. Ds1 had it once as a sedative and it did the opposite, he was far from calm and quiet.
Occasional here we get a begger with a sleeping child in their arms. I lost it a 1 once, yelled at her. Was stupid and pointless but those kids are mediated to sleep for days and probably stolen in the 1st place. Breaks my heart
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I have had so many people tell me to use pernergen on my kids. After 18 years of being a parent, I only found out earlier this year what it is and what it does.
I would never consider it to help my kids sleep but the thought of using it has crossed my mind for a dental procedure one of my kids will be having soon. I will obviously ask my GP for alternatives though.
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My Mum used to give us 'pink' - I don't even know what was in it, it came in a glass bottle from the chemist. We'd even ask for it sometimes, before bed, and she never said no, LOL!
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