Have you ever given your child a sedative on a flight?

[lunasmommy]

This was the topic of a poll on a certain mainstream newsletter that I signed up for while pg. I cant believe it. The sad part is that people actually said that they had and that they'd do it again!!! And when asked what they were giving their baby, 75% said Benadryl....and that was out of 989 votes!!!! Havent they heard of nursing?: We took our daughter on a cross country flight (FL to CA) and she nursed and slept the whole time. We had comments about how good she was. Yet another amazing use for Mamasmilk.

[bri276]

my baby can't nurse but I'm still not about to DRUG her for my convenience!!!

[IansMommy]

Originally Posted by lunasmommy

This was the topic of a poll on the BabyCenter Bulliten that I signed up for while pg. I cant believe it. The sad part is that people actually said that they had and that they'd do it again!!! And when asked what they were giving their baby, 75% said Benadryl....and that was out of 989 votes!!!! Havent they heard of nursing?: We took our daughter on a cross country flight (FL to CA) and she nursed and slept the whole time. We had comments about how good she was. Yet another amazing use for Mamasmilk.

Why do these people even bother having children?

[Jade2561]

I can see how the THOUGHT of doing it could be appealling - but actually doing it - no way. I think people that sedate their children on planes probably do it for other situations as well. I think it's hands down wrong.

[philomom]

Ick. Just ick.

We have never even considered that an option.

[Monkeyfeet]

We recently just flew with dd, 17 months. We were taling to a mom with her 2yo before the flight and she gave him a sed. I looked at her in shock and disbelief. She asked me if I was worried about dd being disruptive........


DD played happily while her son wailed

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

I have given my ds, 4 at the time, a decongestent before a flight as many people in our family suffer from extream sensitivity to pressure changes. I have found that thaking a decongestant an hour before the flight helps alot. I did this for his comfort. I can not even imagine drugging my kid for my conveniance!

[alexsam]

I canceled that BabyCenter thing after a while... reading it was causing me agita.

[wannabe]

I think that those of you who condemn this out of hand have never been on serious long haul flying (14 hours in the air, 56 door to door, that sort of thing).

What toddler could go two days with no sleep if they can't sleep on a plane? My DD will doze on the boob on a plane, but not very well, especially when the 'night' is so arbitrary - once they turn the lights on and start serving a meal, she's awake, even if it's technically 3am. She also has difficulty sleeping during transfers and in boarding lounges.

Once she's two I will carry a sedative with me on long flights, and if she becomes distressed through tiredness and can't be calmed, I will use it. It is kind and caring to understand that it is a LOT to ask of a small child to even cope with such a journey (hell, I feel like death during them and I'm 30!). Sleep is not just a matter of being popped on the boob - for us it requires that and darkness and quiet.

[Pariah]

Wow, that is scary... I'm nervous about my first flight with ds this Wednesday, but there's no way in heck I'd ever consider drugging him...especially when just walking with him calms him down every time when he gets fussy.

[KLK7]

Originally Posted by wannabe

I think that those of you who condemn this out of hand have never been on serious long haul flying (14 hours in the air, 56 door to door, that sort of thing).

how many people are generally making that long of flight? I bet most of the respondants in the survey are on 3-hour flights or less.

[2Sweeties1Angel]

Hell, I've fantasized about sedating my kids just for the heck of it because they're getting on my nerves. I would never do it, though.

I had a friend (emphasis on had) who liked to give her toddler niece and nephew some kind of children's cough medicine to knock them out while she was babysitting so she get back to doing her drugs and whoring around. I told the kids' parents about it and they didn't even care. I don't get people.

[artgoddess]

What the heck is wrong with people? 75% of those surveyed have drugged their kids???!!! That's awful.

[rachdoll]

Originally Posted by wannabe

I think that those of you who condemn this out of hand have never been on serious long haul flying (14 hours in the air, 56 door to door, that sort of thing).

What toddler could go two days with no sleep if they can't sleep on a plane? My DD will doze on the boob on a plane, but not very well, especially when the 'night' is so arbitrary - once they turn the lights on and start serving a meal, she's awake, even if it's technically 3am. She also has difficulty sleeping during transfers and in boarding lounges.

Once she's two I will carry a sedative with me on long flights, and if she becomes distressed through tiredness and can't be calmed, I will use it. It is kind and caring to understand that it is a LOT to ask of a small child to even cope with such a journey (hell, I feel like death during them and I'm 30!). Sleep is not just a matter of being popped on the boob - for us it requires that and darkness and quiet.

I think the disgust here is based on the idea that these parents in the survey drug their children so that they will not be disruptive on the flight, quite different then giving your child medicine for the child's benefit.

[Shelsi]

We've thought about doing it. The first time I flew with ds he was just 2 mos so he just nursed and slept the whole time. The next time however he was a year old and no longer bfing. We bought him a seat and we were really nervous about him freaking out the whole time. I used to belong to that other mainstream board as well and they all suggested benedryl. So I actually bought some but decided to try it before we left. Thank goodness I did!! It made him HYPER!!! It would have been a total nightmare on the plane. In the end we just brought lots of toys and snacks and that worked pretty well although he does get fussy towards the end of the flight (and he won't sleep! but he doesn't sleep in the car either so it's to be expected).

You have to remember that a lot of parents get really embarassed when their kid is acting up or drawing attention. Especially on a plane where everything is pretty hushed. I think everyone has been on a plane or something similar and you remember that ONE screaming baby and just thinking to yourself, "can't they shut that kid up?!" Of course that was when we were single and without kids My point though is that it's done more out of fear than their convenience. Fear of being the parents of THAT kid, kwim? I consider dh and I to be pretty laid back but even we cringe when we think Jake is disrupting someone's time....for instance when we were at Outback the other day. He wanted out of his high chair and was just fussy as all heck. We were worried there may be some parents on a night out around us that he was disrupting. We've had it happen to us and we don't want to do it to anyone else.

[pdx.mothernurture]

That's scary, especially because it's quite possible to overdose a baby on benedryl. There was a case awhile back where a daycare worker was giving kids benedryl---without their parent's consent---to help with naptime. There was a little left in a bottle, and she emptied it into a baby's bottle without measuring and it was a little too much and he/she died. :-(

Jen

[Firemom]

Flying back from Istanbul Turkey (13.5 hour flight) my sister was contemplating giving her active son benydral. I told her not to do it because I had heard that it makes some people sleepy (that would be me)and others hyper.

Well it made her son pretty hyper for a good amount of time.
We both had 2 year olds and my dd was sleeping peacefully without a drug for a good 6 straight hours of that flight with a few catnaps later on!

[bri276]

Originally Posted by wannabe

I think that those of you who condemn this out of hand have never been on serious long haul flying (14 hours in the air, 56 door to door, that sort of thing).

What toddler could go two days with no sleep if they can't sleep on a plane? My DD will doze on the boob on a plane, but not very well, especially when the 'night' is so arbitrary - once they turn the lights on and start serving a meal, she's awake, even if it's technically 3am. She also has difficulty sleeping during transfers and in boarding lounges.

Once she's two I will carry a sedative with me on long flights, and if she becomes distressed through tiredness and can't be calmed, I will use it. It is kind and caring to understand that it is a LOT to ask of a small child to even cope with such a journey (hell, I feel like death during them and I'm 30!). Sleep is not just a matter of being popped on the boob - for us it requires that and darkness and quiet.

one, yep, I've been on many long flights, traveled overseas to Europe, to the southernmost point in the Caribbean, and across the country, dealing with stopovers, delays, etc. It's a nightmare for an adult, let alone with a child, which brings me to
what possible scenario would lead to me bringing my child *regularly* on long flights? I assume it is something very important otherwise no one would do it, but I'm wondering what it could be, not that it's any of my business. without a REALLY good reason, and no, a vacation is not a good reason enough to me when there are places I can go locally for that. I'm not going to drag my kid through multiple airports to 14 hour destinations...
but if I did, I *still* wouldn't give her benadryl. like others have pointed out, it can have the reverse effect and cause hyperactivity, and even if it did sedate her, I would do nothing but worry about her the whole time, as my mom once OD'ed my sister on it and couldn't wake her up. not much they can do about that mid-air.

[Mama Dragon]

The risk that a sedative will have the opposite effect on a child, even one that has taken it before had been sedated, is too great. When traveling, a person, especially a child's body is under ALOT of stress and will react to drugs differently then normal. So you may luck out and get a sleeping child, or you may be the parent who's child turns nutzoid and bounces off the walls. So frankly, I think it's dumb and foolhardy to even tempt it!

Beside's that, drugging your kids is just not....right.

[mothragirl]

although i could never do it, i can see why people would. i flew last november to NYC. my dd wouldn't nurse in public at the time. at all. would only nurse laying down in fact. she went 6 hours at 3 months old without nursing. needless to say she SCREAMED for about 80% of our flights. we walked, we sang, i even tried to nurse her in the bathroom! it was so awful. everyone on the plane had a suggestion for me too : . it was really embarrassing for me and i don't get embarrassed easily.