URGENT! DH accidentally gave 1 tbsp of tylenol to DS instead of 1 TSP - Page 4

[mkksmom]

I underdose sometimes. I myself will not take Tylenol very often, and when I do, I take 1 pill (a half dose) and it works. Why put more medicine in my body than needed? It really does work. For fevers, I do give the full dose if it's high enough or really if the child is cranky enough. I will let a temp under 102 go without meds if the child is happy.

In our house, I do the meds, but I think that the whiteboard/log idea is a good one now that we have 2 kids. My friend's husband was tired and gave decongestant instead of Tylenol once and another time gave a dose of Tylenol in the middle of the night after my friend had already given it-- and this mistake actually happened twice. 3 strikes and you're fired if you ask me. DH and I like our system of just 1 person being in charge.

I would definitely need to vent after an overdose. I've been on forums for a while, so I do feel like I'd probably call my best friend and vent. April, I bet you'll probably do that now too. Seriously though, you don't need to respond any more. Tone of voice is lost on the internet, so sometimes it can bring on responses that you wouldn't expect. Your LO is fine, you let off steam by typing rather than smacking your hubby and the situation turned out fine.

[catballou24]

Went ahead and moved this over as it is focusing on medication and health issues. I would ask anyone responding in this forum to please try to keep it on that topic rather than any personal relationship the OP has with her DH..thanks so much!!!

[purplepaisleymama]

I am sorry that this happened, it is always super stressful to me when the kids are not feeling well and to add a dosing mistake I would not be feeling so great myself! I can say that though most over the counter meds would not be dangerous unless they were given in huge amounts our youngest child was on meds that could cause major damage if given in amounts much more than the dosage that was prescribed. One of the meds that he was on was very strong and he had to have an ekg to check his heart before the meds were started and he had to have periodic tests to make sure that his heart was not being affected. He has also been on meds that were potentially damaging to his liver and had to have monthly tests to check how he was tolerating them.

Our older children have not taken meds, with the exception of our daughter having lyme and ehrlichiosis and she had abx. We are not a medicine happy family, our son has JRA and a bunch of other issues and the meds were to make his life easier and help him to be able to function every day. He is not on any meds now but I can say that I am soooo much more relaxed now without the whole med schedule.

One thing that worked for us in regards to the dosing and being confident that he was getting the correct amount and at the correct time was to keep his meds in pre-filled syringes ( the same ones that you can get for free at the pharmacy) if they were the .5ml size they would fit in a tall medicine bottle ( the kind that you have to push and turn to open). Four syringes would fit in one bottle and I would put a shipping label on the outside of the bottle, keeping a pen or pencil in the bottle (it would fit in the cinter of the syringes) and I would mark the dosage and time on the label....... we managed years with no med mistakes.....unless you count the pharmacy making a dosing mistake that I thankfully caught BEFORE I used it..... he was mistakenly given almost 10 times the dose he was prescribed and it would have been damaging to a full grown adult..... I was not happy..... so I am extra vigilant in checking meds now.

[KatWrangler]

Haven't read all the posts...

My 2 year old drank half a bottle a couple of months ago. I immediately called Poison Control and they reassured me, it was fine. The nurse and I figured out approximately how much she had. They called me back an hour later to make sure she was okay.

Poison Control is great. I don't know what I would do without them.

Not sure if this was mentioned or not. But you can write on your bathroom mirror with an erraseable marker or pen the dosages and times you give meds to anyone in your house. Especially when giving meds during the night when you are sleepy.

[mbravebird]

Originally Posted by KatWrangler

Not sure if this was mentioned or not. But you can write on your bathroom mirror with an erraseable marker or pen the dosages and times you give meds to anyone in your house. Especially when giving meds during the night when you are sleepy.

What a great idea!!

[aslyn]

We RARELY ever give medications..but we have a chalkboard on the wall (small old fashioned thing) and if we have to give anything we just write down the date/time we gave it..before we had that we used to leave a sticky note on the box of motrin with the day/time..this works in our house because *I* am extremely forgetful of times so if I leave and dh is home with a scik kid he knows how much i gave and when..we always follow the box, and never 1/2 dose it just seems a waste to only help them partially.

[GoBecGo]

I don't get why people think that half a dose is not effective. The dose on the box i have says "for babies aged 3 months to 1year one to two small (2.5ml) spoonfuls up to 4 times a day." So is one a half dose? or is half a 2.5ml spoon a half dose? And do we imagine that there is a magic weight that ALL babies between 3months and 1 year fit into which means that dose is enough, not too little, not too much? For some people (depending on boy weight and composition how fast the liver metabolises the medication) a "half" dose will be completely effective - if the pain is gone what is the benefit of giving more? The dosing of OTC medication is VERY random anyway - it's the same dose for a 1 year old as a 6 year old - do they weigh the same? And yes it seems this stuff is so safe they can drink half a bottle and suffer no consequences.

I do understand that people want to do right with drugs, and i would never advocate half-dosing with prescribed medications of any kind, but really, i can't see why logically it's wrong with OTC painkillers.

[Toolip]

I'm confused too. I have no idea where that idea comes from. I understand wanting to give enough so it works but if less works, that's fine. Like you pointed out, other medications it might be a problem, but not OTC pain meds

[redvlagrl]

We had a similar thing when DD was about 9 mths old. DH forgot to shake the Tylenol and she had a full dose. We called TeleHealth and they tranferred me to the pharmacist where they calculated the amount of drug. it was fine.

Incidentally, we never give Ibuprofen unless absolutely necessary (like when DD had Pneumonia) because it's a relatively new drug and it's quite strong. Acetominophen has been around for a looong time so its long term effects are known. We don't use drugs very often anyway, but there have been some interesting write ups on ibuprofen being used too frequently.

[pregnant@40]

There are true "non-responders" to Tylenol. It doesn't work for everyone. Personally, ibuprofen has always been my preference for myself & my child. I am very cautious to give any drug to my child, and of course administer NSAIDs only if needed for pain and/or high fever.

There is nothing wrong with taking a smaller dose of an NSAID than recommended by the weight chart. In fact, the best choice is to take the smallest effective dose. If that's 1/2 what the weight chart states & the kid's fever or pain is reduced to comfortable levels, then that's all the kid needs. It's a judgment call on your part.

[KJoslyn78]

Originally Posted by starling&diesel

COUPLES SHOULD DESIGNATE ONLY ONE PARENT TO EVER GIVE MEDICATION

This

My DH and I do this... 1 parent does the medication (or tells the other what time, written down and verbally, if they can not do it themselves). It's not always me, and not always him... but what we do is the first to start giving medication, handles it until the child is done (fever broken, antibiotics done, etc). The only med we don't do this with is our son's daily Zyrtec during his allergy season, that's always my job.

Also, Poison Control IS the authority on all things poison. When Dr offices and ER use PC as THEIR point of reference, then I know it's a source i can trust (like when i had to frantically call 3 times cause my at the time 2 yr old dd ate and ENTIRE stick of secret deodorant... yeah - 1 stick will just make you throw up a bit, but isn't toxic otherwise)