Help me stop over-medicating my baby! - Page 2

[SeattleRain]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy 

Originally Posted by SeattleRain 

You know, she could be reacting to the dyes in Tylenol. Make sure if you have a baby who is sensitive to get the medication that is dye free.

I was also just about to say that she could have an allergy to something in the Prevacid.

It could be possible. Especially if you're using the solutabs (which I assume she is since I think that's the only way to get that medication for infants). They're flavored and they have strange binders in them and could possibly even have lactose. When I used to get name-brand Prevacid, it used to be pink as well which tells me there was some kind of dye in it. Now that I have generic Prevacid, it's white (but still cherry flavored). This is why I'd suggest seeing an allergist, they'll be able to give you some better advice.

All I really know is that red dye #40 (which is in Tylenol IIRC and many other medicines) can be very intolerable to many, many people and ESPECIALLY to babies. So if you're going to use a pain killer, get some dye-free.

[1stTimeMama4-4-10]

Originally Posted by Cutie Patootie 

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy 

Also, 8.5-10 months or so is a notoriously bad time for sleep. It could be more of a developmental thing than a medical issue (and just coincidence that she relaxed & slept well after taking the meds... or maybe she was too drugged for her brain to keep her awake!) Around that time, my DS woke up every 5 minutes for half the night, it was horrible, but there are TONS of stories just like mine (well maybe every 45 minutes instead of every 5!) for 9mo babies in Nighttime Parenting.

I'm really glad you said this.  It sounds like the op is expecting too much out of her dd regarding sleep.  Babies teeth and they don't sleep well at that age, regardless of how they slept previously.  They are learning new things and growing fast.  They just do not sleep well.  You *can't* drug her into *good* sleep.  It's not going to happen and is a bad road to go down.  I would *not* be giving Tylenol so often, actually not at all.  Tylenol should be an absolute last resort.  It damages the liver and is filled with things that are best to be avoided.  You are not going to find out why your dd is chronically uncomfortable by over-medicating her.  I would really do some hard studying on the long-term effects of the things you are using.  Why add to her problems?

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy 

I would say that's a LOT of medication... but I don't take meds & I have never given my 22mo any meds (though occasionally homeopathics) so I have a very different perspective! My view is that my DS is fine & healthy & going through normal & necessary development so I do not need to 'treat' it. The one time I 'treated' him was when he had a small cut that wasn't healing (for weeks), so we gave him some drops our homeopath gave us & applied calendula cream. We do not give him anything for teething, because he has been teething almost non-stop since 4mos old & I cringe at the thought of medicating him that long!! I actually have found that lots of cuddles & singing to him, telling him stories, etc. works GREAT at soothing pain. We had a lot of major reflux but he grew out of it eventually, without meds, and actually eliminating gluten from my diet helped a ton with his reflux because it was partly related to my oversupply issues. Running a humidifier at night seems to help with his stuffiness (though I see no issue with saline drops I guess, as long as it's not EVERY day). I guess I am just trying to say that it's possible to treat normal infant ailments without medication -- though only you can say if what your DD is experiencing is 'normal' or something more severe. I would try stopping all unnecessary meds for a few days & see if she does OK. I think over-medicating can prevent kids from developing a tolerance to discomfort & make them hypersensitive to pain (but that's just my own personal theory!) Also I would worry that all those chemicals could have side effects (I know acetaminophen can damage the liver, for example).... Is that 'typical' for how much meds you give her daily or was today a one-time thing?

I agree with these posts.  Sometimes DD just has a rough night or two.  I do my best to soothe her, but I would worry MUCH more about the potential side effects of the medications than the root cause. It sounds like your LO has some legitimate allergy issues, so I would try to address them with an allergist to get them properly diagnosed.  I still would probably not medicate. I would try to eliminate the cause and use natural remedies to ease pain only in extreme circumstances - like the very few nights DD has not slept longer than 15 minutes at a time and it is 3am. You might even be able to ease off the prevacid depending on how old your child is - I know my DD stopped having reflux issues altogether a few months ago. Good luck!

[newmamalizzy]

Well, I've mulled this over a lot since I first posted this, and I feel like I've come to a much better place with all of these issues.  That's not to say I agree with everything that's been posted, but sometimes knowing what you don't agree with is just as helpful in determining what you DO.  One more thing I'd like to ask, though:  Many posters here referred to various medications in amorphous negative terms, like "nasty," or "harmful."  I'm a very primary-source kind of girl and just tend not to accept verdicts like that without seeing the facts.  Are there any links anyone can send me to studies, etc. on the effects of various medications or their components? 

[crunchy_mommy]

I'd grab some studies for you but DS just woke up... check on googlescholar.com -- look up the various meds you are giving her -- I think it's a very good idea to carefully research any medication you plan to give her regularly and/or long-term. Some of the side effects mentioned in this thread are very likely mentioned in the drug inserts so I'd read those over carefully too. Ugh sorry the way I worded that is weird, did not mean that to sound the way it does but I have to go, DS is unplugging my laptop...

[spedteacher30]

I am not sure how old your daughter is, but for my son (who is now almost 5) his eczema was really bad when he was 9 months old. It turns out he has a really bad dust allergy, along with (now mostly outgrown) allergies to eggs, milk, soy, peanuts, corn and beef. The thing that really helped him between the ages of 9 and 18 months was regular probiotics--we put it in his bottles of pumped milk at daycare or into applesauce on weekends. Our pediatrician told us, "there is no experimental proof it works, but please give it a try prior to any medications." In fact, I think we might try it again now.

We started him on regular antihistamines when he was 3, but gave him occasional benadryl prior to that. the occasional benadryl helped him with really bad flares. We used (and still use) a prescription cream when the flares are at their worst, and use olive oil as a preventative daily.

We only started a regular antihistamine (he takes one called Xyzal--which is second generation Zyrtec available only by prescription) when all attempts at control via diet and environment had failed. His flares were cracked and bleeding--we felt we had no choice.

We are not anti-medication at all, but I would have felt very uncomfortable giving him regular medication prior to age 2. It took us quite a while to find the Xyzal--he failed trials of Zyrtec, Claritin, and Allegra. We're still looking for a medication to help with his asthma--he has failed trials of the medications we have tried for that as well.

[newmamalizzy]

Originally Posted by spedteacher30 

I am not sure how old your daughter is, but for my son (who is now almost 5) his eczema was really bad when he was 9 months old. It turns out he has a really bad dust allergy, along with (now mostly outgrown) allergies to eggs, milk, soy, peanuts, corn and beef. The thing that really helped him between the ages of 9 and 18 months was regular probiotics--we put it in his bottles of pumped milk at daycare or into applesauce on weekends. Our pediatrician told us, "there is no experimental proof it works, but please give it a try prior to any medications." In fact, I think we might try it again now.

We started him on regular antihistamines when he was 3, but gave him occasional benadryl prior to that. the occasional benadryl helped him with really bad flares. We used (and still use) a prescription cream when the flares are at their worst, and use olive oil as a preventative daily.

We only started a regular antihistamine (he takes one called Xyzal--which is second generation Zyrtec available only by prescription) when all attempts at control via diet and environment had failed. His flares were cracked and bleeding--we felt we had no choice.

We are not anti-medication at all, but I would have felt very uncomfortable giving him regular medication prior to age 2. It took us quite a while to find the Xyzal--he failed trials of Zyrtec, Claritin, and Allegra. We're still looking for a medication to help with his asthma--he has failed trials of the medications we have tried for that as well.

Thanks for this.  We were giving her a probiotic at some point when she was having chronic indigestion.  It didn't seem to help that, but I didn't think to look at how it affected her exzema (which has been getting worse lately, despite our efforts with moisturizing).  I see the Zyrtec the way you describe the Benedryl - something to use on "special" occasions when an allergy flare-up occurs.  As we're dabbling into solids, I'm SURE we're going to find some foods she can't tolerate, and I'm really not looking forward to the results.  It sounds like your son is "the allergic type," as our ped described DD.  What were his symptoms like when he was young. How did you finally figure out what was triggering his allergies?

[spedteacher30]

Our doctor told us that the Zyrtec was only good for eczema if you gave it regularly--just now I read that Dr. Sears disagrees, so who knows?

We were "lucky" I suppose, in that our son's first allergic reaction was so clear--I had gallbladder issues, so I switched to soy milk because cow's milk was really bad on my stomach. He was about 3 months old, and had bloody stool within 36 hours of me eating cereal with soy milk.

We pinpointed the soy and milk allergies right away without testing. At 9 months, I asked for a full panel because I was afraid of an egg allergy (I had already eliminated milk, soy and nuts from my diet)--the eggs and peanuts showed up then. the corn and beef allergies showed up on later panels (at 20 months for beef and 3 years for corn). At 3 years, the doctor also did a full environmental panel--which is when the dust showed up. because of the dust allergy, we felt comfortable moving him to a daily dose of antihistimine.

I also suspect a coconut allergy, but I haven't pushed the doctor to test it. he is also allergic to cats and dogs--dogs are his worst allergen, though we still have a dog and a cat. We keep them dog out of the bedrooms and won't get new pets when they pass away.

[trekkingirl]

FYI  I know someone who was given tylenol as a baby by an abusive parent just to knock her out. Not knowing she had been regularly dosed as a baby, she took tylenol for a headache as an adult one day and went into full blown kidney faliure. She has had all kinds of health problems since then. I'm sure this is an exception to the norm, but it has made me think twice about using tylenol when maybe we can get by without it, KWIM?

[Knitting Mama]

My big worry with overmedicating is tolerance issues. When you take too much of a medication for extended periods of time you naturally start to build a tolerance to it. Your baby does not need to be building up a tolerance to medication this early in life! Can you imagine having to give your 8 year old twice the recommended dose of Tylenol because she doesn't get any effect from the recommended dose?

[PlayaMama]

i would not mess with either the prevacid or the saline. acid reflux is painful and can cause scarring. saline is just salt water, i used to use it all the time when we lived in the desert and at a high altitude for the little's noses.

the only med that's concerning on a regular basis is the tylenol. i would definitely try motrin instead sometimes and see if you could skip it entirely.

i'm glad that you are thinking about it and aware that you don't want to over-medicate.

[Tattooed Hand]

I give my DD pain meds for teething. Some weeks it's 4 out of 7 nights. It's because for some babies, teething isAGONY. She cries, she wakes up alot, she bites us, she bites herself. She has gone days getting only 9 hours of sleep total a day and being utterly exhausted. I don't like it, but sometimes it is really worth it.

[ssh]

We're another family who uses ibuprofen instead of tylenol. Tylenol is just too toxic and doesn't relieve pain as well. We never gave more than one dose of ibuprofen a day and usually for teething it was usually about 4 doses a week when it got really bad. 

[PlayaMama]

after thinking about it, i realized that my dd went through a period where she was getting motrin almost every night for a bit. i would try to hold out and she was just so miserable and then i'd give her the motrin and she could finally sleep. my ds had never had a problem with teething so it took me awhile to figure it out.

i think it's probably just a stage and your dd will be fine.

[luckymamaoftwo]