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I was just reading the phenergen thread for allergies and it reminded me about a fb status someone was telling me of recently. A woman wrote that she had just dosed the kids up on phenergen so they would sleep through state of origin and she could get drunk.
No point to the thread really, but it just suprises me that people could view medications so flippintly!
The number of people who told me to give it to DD when we flew with her, both at age 9 mths and 20 mths, made me SICK!!!!
I was prescribed it for dd who gets hives that claratyne & Zyrtec don't have any effect on and was shocked to read on the dosage instructions on box/bottle the quantities for night time sedation.
I used to use it on DS because he had allergies and it was the only thing that worked. I have been tempted to use it as a sedative at times lol
Wow, maybe they realise that there are people out there using it for that kind of thing and the makers felt it was best to put a dosage on so that children aren't overdosed by accident?:
Makes me sad that people feel a need to use it that way.
People use it on plane trips for this exact reason... very common.
Seriously? :o
Yep i know of mothers who dose their kids so they can go out drinking. Its disgusting!
When my DD was 22 months old she became very distraught i could not calm her down, neither could DP and we were out in public it has been the ONLY time i had considered it but with further thinking i changed my mind, we ended up going into a chemist where they suggested a single dose of panadol incase she was in pain.
Personally (and i work in emergency RN) i always have a bottle of phenergan in the medicine cupboard for antihistamine uses mainly but sometimes i have used it for sedation purposes for my children but very rarely....
Clarytine and Zertec just arent powerful enough and for severe allergies and phenergan stops reactions quickly. Phenergan also works as a antiemetic as in stops nausea/car/travel sickness and safe to use in pregnancies too .... so it is a useful medicine but a MEDICINE all the same....
So yes just to dope your kids up just so you can get drunk and watch tv is disgraceful.... and those parents/guardians reck it for us responsable ones and then we have to ask 20 bloody question for a bottle for the cupboard just in case!!!
I've had to use it to sedate my DD prior to having a tooth removed at the dentist. It was the only way we could have her "calm" enough for the dentist to inject the local anesthetic.
It didn't "knock" her out just calmed her down. She was also given it in hospital years ago for sedation prior to a ct scan, as it's more complicated to be working with general anesthetics for her diabetes then simply calming her down a bit and getting the tests done.
I'd never use it just for the sake of it, I prefer to look at other alternatives first.
I've heard of that, but it's a pretty strong drug to blitz an immature nervous system. I made some Lullaby tea using herbs that nourish the nervous system and gently calm and soothe, and we use it in our house when anyone has trouble settling - from 1 yr old bub to 50 yr old dad and everyone in between. I feel good using this because it doesn't dope you, it nourishes your system and calms you down - I have really good sleeps when I use it and wake feeling rested instead of groggy.
I've used it on myself for travel sickness and it zonked me out! I would be hesitant to use it unless there was a serious allergy involved! Apparently it can also have the opposite effect in that it sends some kids hyper so that is also something these people need to consider!
when i was pregnant with my last baby ds3 20 months they gave me endone 5 mg tab (morphine) and a 25mg phenergan tablet to relax and stop my pre term labour which helped and it worked ....
I used it for dd1 when she was 19 months old as she had mouth ulcers and they were keeping her awake but being distressed all night was making them worse. Two doses and they were gone.
Dd2 just had a week of doses at almost 6. She broke her arm and had extreme tingling in her fingers. After 10 nights of NO sleep it was either that or a mental home for us all!
But even tho I am an RN and could have just got it over the counter I went to a GP to talk it through and make sure I was making the right choice.
BOTH time the dr gave a smaller dose than the bottle! BOTH times I have slept in the room with the sedated child JIC.
I find Zertec works well enough as an anti histamine.
A GP once admitted to me that he gave BOTH his DSs it every night of their first year of life to make sure they slept thru! The boys were thick as and I never used him as a GP again!!!!
When I was living in Brisbane I had a GP tell me the same thing O.o:
My child is one of the small percent that actually bounce off the walls when they take it. For this reason it is at the bottom of our list of antihistamines (and we have an extensive list) there are many others that we can use without such extreme side effects.
When I was a teenager my step sister would give it to my niece if I was babysitting, but that was in the 90's
:o:o:o:
A GP once admitted to me that he gave BOTH his DSs it every night of their first year of life to make sure they slept thru! The boys were thick as and I never used him as a GP again!!
I can see the justification for it's use -I even understand the plane trip thing, (thought am not sure I would do it) but the case of just for your convenience, I just think it's not on.
where can I get some of this....god i miss sleep :o:
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We have used it for plane travel.
I also use it when we go through our MASSIVE sleep deprived sessions, maybe once every 6months. Its when the girls are just so overtired their sleep routines are all over the place. No one gets any sleep for about a week when it happens. We use it for about 3 -4 nights in a row at a hlaf dose to get help us get everyones routines back. I don't think its fair on them when they are that over tired and can't sleep. I also don't think it's fair as a parent to be tired and grumpy and taking it out on the child. So yes - i am guilty as charged for using it as a sedative when it's needed here. Certainly not every night but when we need it i use it.
For me personally, i also use it in place of cold and flu tablets. I'm allergic to codience and asprin which is in pretty much all C & F meds, so phernegan works well for me.
A few weeks back a friend of mine was using it because her 2yr old wouldnt go to bed without needing her mum to cuddle her. So the mum, my friend, preferred to drug her child instead of cuddling her. You know why she didnt want to cuddle her daughter because it took up too much time, that she would miss out on her tv shows, that she wouldnt get on the internet soon enough. It took so much strength not to go to town on her actions. It makes me so angry to think people do this to their children because they are considered an inconvenience.
My mum apparently used it on my brother to get him to sleep...he reacted to it by being hyper. Haha, taught her I guess.
I used to be so anti the stuff until DD2 got the UTI from hell. The pharmacist had to convince me to take some and I am glad she did. It was the only thing that would calm her down enough to get fluids and AB's into her. Since then we have used to allergic reactions (we can get some super bugs out here), helps stop the itching so the girls can get some sleep.
It does annoy me that it is abused, as it makes it so hard on those that have a legitimate use.
Totally understandable :hug::
I used it when my DS was 2 following surgery as recommended by the surgeon. I also use it regularly for DS (now 5) for allergies. It is not a sedative dose though. Works wonders for him.
a pharmacist sold me a bottle once to aid in car sickness in my then 2 1/2 year old DD. he said to give it to her 20mins before going in the car. it wasnt even chronic car sickness.. hard to predict when it was going to happen, only happend a handful of times. i bought the bottle but never gave it to her. i had never heard of it being used as a car sickness medication. just seemed wrong to me.
I remember when DD was tiny (maybe a month or so) we went to a house party and one of the guys that was there was saying how he'd left his three kids at home with the baby sitter (wife in tow at party) as he just couldn't handle their whining anymore and so he'd "drugged the f'ers" by dosing them up on phenergan before they left :o I was aghast... not only at the drug use but at the terminology!
Anyway, I commented on it to DH and he agreed yep, not something we'd be doing.
Three and a bit years later... we haven't ever used phenergan, but we have used pain stop, for sedative purposes... much the same as one of the PPs, DD gets ulcers and when she does, she is inconsolable and does not sleep. A wink. So we use pain stop on the GP's advice. Is that different? Different medication I guess.
I know that when I've had phenergan, I've been completely wiped and zonked. Don't know that I'd want my kids feeling like that...
I think it's wrong to use it as a sedative for your benefit, ie travel or slerp routines being out of whack etc My boss gave it to his young children so they would sleep through a car trip from Adelaide to Melbourne, on his doctors recommendation!!
Using it as a sedative due to the child being on pain is a different story, if nothing else works.
Phenergan has such a bad rap, when I believe there are plenty of other meds out there that get used as well for convenience. We all have out meds that we have never used/wont use. I have never used Painstop, I suppose as it has never been recommended to me by a GP or pharmacist. Saying that though I am not comfortable with dosing with both paracetamol and nuerofen. I am fine if the hospital does it, but it is not something I want to do it home and don't have an issue with parents that do use it (so long as they are dosing properly):
I've never used it personally - but I can see occasions where it could be warranted if done under medical supervision and following the directions on the bottle. Which IIRC say it shouldn't be given to children under 2 unless on a doctor's advice.
Mind you, I think I got scared off by my mother's horror story of using it with my sister for a flight, not having given it to her before - only to find out she was also one of the ones that get the opposite result. Hyperactive toddler trapped on a plane was not fun apparently :rolleyes:
I suppose what scares me is how dopey it does make you (well it does me anyway) and how does that affect a small child - in particular their breathing. Is it possible for them to get into a deep sleep and forget to breath? That would scare me alot.
I'm even more horrified now that MIL suggested we use it when DD was having real issues going to sleep/staying asleep at night. And DF was all for using it..so glad I stood my ground and said there's no way in hell I'm going to drug her to sleep!
I thought the hyperactive opposite reaction was a ploy by the chemist to put me off getting some! Mind you I asked for it to try to help my DS with his hayfever and was pointed toward children's claratyne instead.
Nope. Both my boys have the hyper reaction :( I was using it for severe allergic reactions.
Legitimate medical problems I don't have a problem with but when you can't be bothered to be a parent to your children so you resort to drugging them then I do have a problem with.....the ultimate scare for me is as Ausgirl said they go into such a deep sleep that their breathing is affected and who knows how your child will react to it??? Very scary stuff. I once got on a long haul flight with DD and the person next to me asked me if I had drugged her, I was so shocked I didn't know what to say....I had a peadiatrician in South Africa tell me to use Pain Stop to get DD to sleep through the night at four months....I am amazed at so-called professionals recommending it in order to sedate children not for medical reasons, just for sedation.....
The thing is I suppose some people are driven to desperation and will try anything. I don't think they are necessarily wrong, maybe just not well informed. Then there are others that make informed decisions, but too are doing it out of desperation as exhausted emotional parents.
Can't it cause respiratory failure? I am always very wary of drugs. Have never used it and hope I never have to.
Someone I knew gave it to their little boy so they would sleep all night one new years eve :-(
Painstop night has more promethazine than phenergan plus a dose of panadol plus codeine.
I have used phenergan to sedate my kids. It is an on label use. My children have never had respiratory issues and I wouldn't give it to them if they were unwell.
Judge me if you want, but if you do I hope you know what it is like to resettle children alternately all night long, grabbing half an hour of sleep here and there between the next resettle, hoping that one's screaming doesn't wake the other so you end up with both awake and up for the day at 3am. I managed like that for months and months but couldn't cope with doing it by myself, 7 months pregnant while DH was away for two weeks.
So I drugged them. I used the correct dosage as stated on the bottle, for the time limit stated on the bottle.
I never imagined I would be someone that would drug their kids to sleep, but sometimes you do what you have to just to survive.
I know people who have used it as a last resort because they needed to break the no sleep cycle, and for them it was the right decision. i was always too scared that it would hype my little non-sleeper up. They might have been exhausted, but the decision to use it was not an emotional one, but a calculated one that had been thought out and discussed with a medico.:
There is a chemist near us who makes up their own teething elixir. It's not called painstop but it sounds similar. Under 2 years (I think) you need a prescription and after two you can buy it over the counter. it has some sort of sedative in it but not phernergan. I know of people who have been at the doctors for a prescription almost to the day that their babies were old enough ( I think they won't presctibe it before 8 months). We could nevet pinpoint a reason why our ds would sleep no longer than 2 hours at a time (although often more like an hour) and i allowed myself to be convinced that it could be teething so I got some when ds was about 15 months old. It just made him wake up more and we decided that it really just was developmental and not pain-related.
It's a low point for me that we tried it but I was a broken person from lack of sleep. It renewed my commitment to gentle parenting and I rode it out till he was ready to sleep for longer just before he turned 2.
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