Natural vs theraputic

hope this is in the right spot ~ please move if it isn't


Was just wondering how many people for themselves and/or their children will reach for the bottle/tablet of panadol or similar at the first sign of temperature or unsettledness?

Our Gp has recommended to let nature take its course as it is your bodies natural way to fight infection. We have followed his advice for the last 8 years. We do use panadol ect as a last resort. We have been told not to use nurofen (although I have for myself )

What other information have others got from their Gp's?

How often would you take or adminster to your kids panadol ect?

How long do you wait before giving medication? (as in try other methods)

I am just curious as to what other people do...

ETA: I do use panadol for myself or my children when I feel it is needed but I prefer to wait and let nature takes it course but I am not silly with my childrens health either

I try natural methods first. If Nina feels a little warm, but still happy, then for eg I'll increase her fluids, put a cold washer on her head, or give her a cool bath. If she's getting irritable and not getting better, then I resort to Panadol.
I prefer Panadol over Nurofen, however I have had to resort to Nurofen a couple of times when she's been teething and nothing else has settled her.
As for me, I do the same. Very rarely do I pop a few Panadol just because I have a headache. I prefer to try and fight it first. And most times I do. It's only if I have a migraine that I need the medication.

I guess another question I have is how quickly do you go to the Drs

I go quickly for my kids but for myself I put it off and off

Panadol doesn't get administered here very quickly for bubs. I don't even have a thermometer to know if they're burning up! I figure if they obviously have a fever, then it's time for some panadol hehe. Not just coz the thermometer says they're up to 38 degrees. I recently threw out a bottle of panadol coz it had expired heh.

Myself - I'm fairly quick to pop panadol, because I know if I don't catch it early it escalates quickly into a migraine, which needs something stronger. I do occassionally try and go without the panadol to re-test my theory lol.. and yep - need to pop it quick!

Doctors - very rarely go to the doctors. DS hasn't been to the doctors yet for anything except needles. actually no - he did go once.. he had a lingering chunky cough once so I took him to the dr (after 2 weeks of coughing LOL). If it's something unusual, I would probably take the kids to the dr pretty quickly.. but just for colds and coughs I don't bother. I hate antibiotics, and that's all the drs ever hand out.. so we usually see through our colds & flu ourselves. Us adults usually take natural remedies (altho I haven't lately with pg's and breastfeeding).

Myself - Never go to the doctor LOL.

Mind you, we are all a pretty healthy bunch (perhaps coz we don't go to the dr? lol) so I've had no need for drs & medicine really. Dr gave us a script for reflux meds when DD had her needles.. but I haven't filled it.. she's not too bad with it, so we're letting nature do it's thing and her reflux will settle over time (dr did say only to use it if either of us aren't coping with the reflux).

I will take the kids at the first sign of a cold going bad but more because I am a major worry wart. Our Dr doesn't give out AB's like lollies thats for sure and we really like him.. He usually tells us what to look for and to come back in 3 days if they still aren't looking any better. he isn't that easy to get into so when we see another Dr in his surgery and they offer AB's we usually decline or take the script and don't fill it unless we think they need it ( In saying that I know we aren't Drs but we are parents )

My kids are pretty healthy specimens when it comes to colds but lately we've been going due to accidents (poking things in ears/falls etc). I am slow to administer pain killers too especially if they are settled. I usually give it if they have a fever AND are miserable. If in doubt I give Nurse-On-Call a ring... a wonderful free service.

I also used to be a fairly healthy person but I took my health for granted and ignored symptoms and now i have a serious illness :( (see my hyperthyroid thread). So never again will I be able to "soldier on". My advice is to LISTEN to your body and use your intuition. Don't pretend that it will go away if you try to forget/ignore it.

Yeah Bath - we do take our health a bit for granted. But if we have lingering symptoms we do go to the doctor. We usually are only ever sick with the week long head cold. We don't even really get struck with the flu, so we're pretty lucky. Tallon has been the healthiest kid I know - not sure how! All he ever seems to pick up from other kids is colds, and he only ever really gets the sniffles.. never had temps or vomiting or anything (yet!).

We have only had few cases of vomiting here I think 3 all up.. My kids have been really healthy (aprt from Isaac and his migraines) Jacob just had his 2nd cold ever and 3rd illness.

The year before last my DS1 and 2 both got a terrible tummy bug and DS2 almost ended up in hospital due to dehydration. We had to use panadol on a regular basis then as the boys temps wouldn't come down.. As it was even with panadol they sat at 38 most of the time

I guess the subtle symptoms I ignored included: a mild hand tremor, feeling tired, not liking the heat. I didn't think anything of it for quite a long time... then mentioned it as an "aside" when at the doctors for something else then BAM "you could die from this!".

I think when you are young you think illness is primarily about avoiding the flu. As you grow older you have to watch out for other health issues... things can creep up on you more slowly and it's not as obvious as vomitting.

I guess I ignore symptoms for myself.. I had what I thought was a just a sore tooth.. Eventually I had to go get it chdecked out and I had a blocked salivary gland.. At least mine was abke to go away