This post has long been coming and the it is entirely based on my experience as a parent. Before I start off my story I must say every country has a way of dealing with sickness in children differently. Where I live now they believe in the immune system fighting the virus and getting stronger before you administer any antibiotic. The country I originate from, India, believes in helping babies because their systems are weak and are only starting to develop. I must admit, I lean towards the Indian doctors' belief. But anyway this is how the story starts.....
After the nine months of waddling around and being blessed with a beautiful baby girl, I had to stay in India till my daughter's papers came through for her to leave, which took about another four months. In this time, her first few vaccines were administered and the Paediatrician gave his personal number to call on if there was any clarification or emergency. Things changed once I left to join my husband, we needed to find a General Physicist(GP) and access to a paediatrician of our choice was only available if there was something seriously wrong with my child! To cut the long story short, we had things sorted out in about a month's time and the GP told us things did not matter if the baby's body temperature was about a 100 degrees, it was normal, she told us to come only if the child's temperature crossed 101, and the answer to every ailment was 'Paracetamol'..... WAIT! WHAT??
In the first four months of being a new parent I had never seen my child's body temperature cross 101. General knowledge says "keep the body temperature below a 100 degrees as once it crosses that limit it can shoot up and you are in danger of either seizures or passing out and going six feet below the ground!" The doctor also said "Pick a bottle of paracetamol off the Shelf!" .... Hmmm, ok! but which one? And so the hunt for paracetamol began!
From my experience I can tell you that not every brand of paracetamol agrees with children. The first Paracetamol bottle we got was a nightmare. I remember after a vaccine shot my child's temperature was rising, to control the temperature and to ease the ache we gave her the recommended dosage. The next thing I remember was her throwing up all over the place. Apparently this is common and people gave us a lot of "brilliant ideas", like, "Hold the child's nose when you give her the dosage!" or "Add the dosage in juice!" Like the child would not notice the taste difference and refuse to drink the juice, which is exactly what my daughter did. The next one we got, she just would never open her mouth. What nobody told us was is to keep trying till we found the right one!
Again cutting the long story short, we did just that, tried a few paracetamol brands for babies and voila, finally found one that she could digest and liked. Dymadon has come through for us many times. If ever a child throws up not once but quite a few times after a dosage of paracetamol, do not get frustrated, hold his/her nose and pour the dosage down their throat but instead get a different brand of paracetamol and try... You'll finally come down to one that he/she will like!
I know many of you new parents are currently in the shoes, I wore two years ago, for the paracetamol hunt and I hope reading this post you know you are not alone on this journey. Cheers to parenting and to paracetamol that gets us through sometimes!
After the nine months of waddling around and being blessed with a beautiful baby girl, I had to stay in India till my daughter's papers came through for her to leave, which took about another four months. In this time, her first few vaccines were administered and the Paediatrician gave his personal number to call on if there was any clarification or emergency. Things changed once I left to join my husband, we needed to find a General Physicist(GP) and access to a paediatrician of our choice was only available if there was something seriously wrong with my child! To cut the long story short, we had things sorted out in about a month's time and the GP told us things did not matter if the baby's body temperature was about a 100 degrees, it was normal, she told us to come only if the child's temperature crossed 101, and the answer to every ailment was 'Paracetamol'..... WAIT! WHAT??
In the first four months of being a new parent I had never seen my child's body temperature cross 101. General knowledge says "keep the body temperature below a 100 degrees as once it crosses that limit it can shoot up and you are in danger of either seizures or passing out and going six feet below the ground!" The doctor also said "Pick a bottle of paracetamol off the Shelf!" .... Hmmm, ok! but which one? And so the hunt for paracetamol began!
From my experience I can tell you that not every brand of paracetamol agrees with children. The first Paracetamol bottle we got was a nightmare. I remember after a vaccine shot my child's temperature was rising, to control the temperature and to ease the ache we gave her the recommended dosage. The next thing I remember was her throwing up all over the place. Apparently this is common and people gave us a lot of "brilliant ideas", like, "Hold the child's nose when you give her the dosage!" or "Add the dosage in juice!" Like the child would not notice the taste difference and refuse to drink the juice, which is exactly what my daughter did. The next one we got, she just would never open her mouth. What nobody told us was is to keep trying till we found the right one!
Again cutting the long story short, we did just that, tried a few paracetamol brands for babies and voila, finally found one that she could digest and liked. Dymadon has come through for us many times. If ever a child throws up not once but quite a few times after a dosage of paracetamol, do not get frustrated, hold his/her nose and pour the dosage down their throat but instead get a different brand of paracetamol and try... You'll finally come down to one that he/she will like!
I know many of you new parents are currently in the shoes, I wore two years ago, for the paracetamol hunt and I hope reading this post you know you are not alone on this journey. Cheers to parenting and to paracetamol that gets us through sometimes!
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