painless relief for all the family (Calpol)

Member Name: west_jenn

Product:	Calpol
Date:	20/05/05 (138 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: it works

Disadvantages: it smells like bubblegum

Scarlett is in the middle of a long drawn out teething process. It really does seem to be taking ages. We keep trying to peek in her mouth to see the tooth’s process (when she lets us!) but it appears to be taking its time. This is all making her a little bit grumpy from time to time. The other night she transcended grumpiness and we had a full scale screaming, distressed, crying episode. Nothing was calming her down so we decided that she needed some calpol to ease the discomfort.

We were quite reluctant to give her calpol as we reasoned that as this is her first tooth she will be teething on and off for a while, so can’t have calpol all the time. However, she was very upset the other night.

It is sold in a bright purple packet with a picture of a smiley child on it (what you are hoping for after using it!) There are 72 sachets in a packet, they cost about £2.50 and can be brought from any chemist or big supermarket.

Calpol is a sugar free strawberry flavoured infant suspension (even after reading the information I’m still not sure what suspension means it sounds a bit odd), but its aim is to bring down fever and deal with teething pain. It contains 120mg if of paracetamol per 5ml of calpol. It also contains the following: maltihol liquid, glycerol polysorbate 80, sorbitol solution, methyl parahydroxybenzoate (E218) propyl parahyfroxybenzoate (E216) ethyl parahydroxybenzoate (E214) dispersible cellulose, xanthan gum, flavoured water and carmoisine (E122) as colouring in the strawberry flavouring.

Wow that’s some long ingredients! Scarlet’s first e numbers and to think we don’t even give her non organic food at the moment.

Calpol is for children over 3 months the only exception is for post immunization fever after baby’s two month jab and then you should only give half a 5ml sachet or a 2.5ml spoonful. If the baby doesn’t improve give another spoonful in 4-6 hours, but after that consult your doctor if symptoms persist.

For babies 3-12 months you can give one to two small (2.5ml) spoonfuls up to 4 times daily

Children 1-6 years can have one to two 5ml sachets up to 4 times a day. I don’t think this product is that effective for kids over 6 as the instruction booklet recommends you ask your pharmacist to recommend a suitable product. I think calpol has a separate medicine for children over 6. You shouldn’t exceed 4 doses a day and should leave at least 4 hours between doses, also if symptoms continue for more than 3 days don’t continue with the calpol without seeking your doctor’s advice.

In certain circumstances you shouldn’t give your child this product. These are when/if:

Your child has ever had an allergic reaction to any of the ingredients
If they’ve had any other paracetamol containing products

You should be careful if:

Your child has any serious kidney or liver problems
Inherited fructose intolerance
If they are taken any medicines containing the following metoclopramide or domperidone, cholestyramine, anticoagulants and anticonvulsants.

The packet of calpol comes complete with a small double ended plastic spoon, one end has a 5ml spoon and the other end is a 2.5ml spoon. It wasn’t the easiest thing to give to Scarlett, seeing as she was screaming her head of. So we tried for quite a while to get the required amount in her mouth and finally succeeded. She seemed to like the smell and taste of it and after the first mouthful held her mouth open for me. I don’t know we try and give her organic fruit and vegetables and she likes synthetic strawberry stuff that smells a bit like bubble gum.

It really did seem to work as she slowly calmed down and went to sleep for the night about half an hour later. Its not something I want to use a lot, but I think we would have all had a nasty night if she hadn’t have had some!

Summary: