Children's Cold Medicine

[DobbyForever]

Morning! I'm totally fine with advil and tylenol to reduce fevers, but now that DS is 4 and he's getting sick a lot and clearly bothered by some of the other symptoms (sore throat, runny nose, aches) I'm wondering at what point did people start giving medication for those? I usually just deal myself as well, but if it gets bad I'll take some dayquil or nyquil. I was looking at the kid's medicines, and there were just too many so i got overwhelmed and left haha.

So the questions are:
1. At what age did you start giving LOs medicine for things like cough, sore throat, runny nose...?
2. Do you have any particular brands that you like and why?
3. Is there anything I should be wary of? Like avoid certain ingredients or what not.

Thanks ladies!

 

[Rags]

Hi, so I'm not big on medication for myself with a cold and stuff and am a bit the same with Ds. That said 'never say never'

From about 18 months If he was in pain and a warm water bottle isn't working I'd give children's paracetamol or ibuprofen (the comon brand here is calpol and calprofen), I tend to stick with those because I know he doesn't hate the taste.

For sniffles then I use a vapour rub on his chest and feet -'snuffle babe' up till he was about 4 then 'vicks' since

Runny nose and cough I don't really give anything, maybe a steamie shower or bath. I figure the symptoms are there to get him to take it easy and rest so I just aim for plenty of fluid and keeping cosy until he's over it.

 

[Babybump87]

We do the same as Rags!
Calpol in our house - tastes the best haha
I find that your typical pain relief does more than any cough etc medication would and tends to give mine an upset stomach .

We also use a saline nose spray if they are really stuffy DS has the drops !

Speak to your GP before giving ibuprofen if your child has asthma - we got told to avoid it when DS had a chest infection and just to give Calpol - can apparently trigger an attack or make symptoms worse

 

[DobbyForever]

Thanks ladies! This is was (so far) a one off. I definitely do the cold mist humidifier and steamy showers, which usually do the trick. Only had to use the baby Vick’s three times. He just had one cold over the summer where he was like holding his throat and clearly miserable and achy. Just got me thinking about it. And he has a perpetual runny nose now that they’re letting more kids back into school/people aren’t distancing as much. I tend to skip the saline spray if I can just run the shower. He was hospitalized with pneumonia at 9 months and they were spraying and suctioning him and doing this back pound massage thing every few hours. It really traumatized him. I try to save that for really bad congestion where I can’t convince him to enjoy a steam.

I know his ped is very pro Tylenol and only use advil when fevers aren’t breaking to alternate doses. She told me why, but general gist was overall safer. But I do remember the whole don’t take Advil with covid because of the respiratory effects. I definitely tend to reach for advil myself. Tylenol does nothing for me. Except I do love me some DayQuil/NyQuil. Will def check out that calpol though!

 

[Babybump87]

Oh wow that must have been so scary for you and him to be hospitalised.

DD2 was hospitalised at 12 days old with RSV . Spent a week there on oxygen and feeding tube with the suctions . Was the worst week of my life. We think that’s why she has issues with her chest/airways now.

I truly hate the winter purely because of the illness that go around . Like you say be much worse this year with no social distancing . I can imagine younger children to be a lot sicker having not been exposed to certain viruses !

Hopefully no one will get too sick this winter !

 

[DobbyForever]

Right?! It’s so terrifying. I don’t wish it on anybody. DS also has had chronic issues with his breathing since. We have a nebulizer and albuterol and budesine(?). I always forget. I will say that I am using it less. So hopefully DD sees improvement over time.

right?!? I keep thinking that he’s been so sick just these few months but golly what does winter have in store

 

[Babybump87]

Right?! It’s so terrifying. I don’t wish it on anybody. DS also has had chronic issues with his breathing since. We have a nebulizer and albuterol and budesine(?). I always forget. I will say that I am using it less. So hopefully DD sees improvement over time.

right?!? I keep thinking that he’s been so sick just these few months but golly what does winter have in store

When she got discharged the consultant did say she might have issues with her chest etc since she had the virus at such a young age . We always kept that in mind . She actually has an inhaler too the blue one (cannot think what it’s called now haha )

Fingers crossed it won’t be a bad one for them and us !