Nurofen is a brand of pain relieving products. They have a limited range of products for use by children.

~Nurofen~

This review discusses the Nurofen for Children Strawberry Oral Suspension. An orange flavour is also available.

This Nurofen is in a sugar free and colour free liquid form and is suitable for children from 3months to 9years. Each 5ml does contains 100mg of active ibuprofen. This medicine is designed to reduce a fever and can also be used to relieve the pain caused by toothache, a sore throat, aches, sprains and headache.

~Packaging~

This particular Nurofen can be recognised by its red, orange and silver box with all the relevant information and warnings present. The bottle inside is a typical medicine style, plastic bottle with a child safety cap. Also included is a syringe for administering the medicine.

~Dosage~

This medicine is not suitable for those under 3months or under 5kg. You should not give this medicine to your child if they are allergic to any of the ingredients or have a fructose intolerance. Medical advice should be sought if your child suffers from asthma or certain other health conditions.

The dosage varies depending on the age of the child. The following information is taken directly from the box :

*3-6months - 2.5ml up to 3 times a day
*6-12months - 2.5ml up to 4 times a day
*1-4years - 5ml up to 3 times a day
*4-7years - 7.5ml up to 3 times a day
*7+years - 10ml up to 3 times a day

Leave at least 4hrs between dosages but preferrably 6-8hour intervals.

~Price~

Nurofen Strawberry can be bought in a 100ml or 200ml bottle from chemists. Sachets are also available. The 100ml bottle is currently priced at £3.15 in Boots. The bottles work out better value for money than the sachets but it is a matter of convenience.

~My Thoughts~

Having a toddler in our home, we always have a stock of Calpol (or Boots/Asda own brand) and childrens Nurofen. There is nothing worse than a child waking up in the middle of the night in pain and realising you don't have anything stronger than cuddles to soothe the discomfort. I bought my latest bottle of Nurofen 2months ago from Boots. It certainly isn't cheap but I cannot put a price on my sons health and comfort.

I am not in the habit of giving our son medicine for the sake of it. If he is in mild discomfort normally some Calpol does the trick though personally, we find Nurofen more suitable for when he is in a lot of pain (but not enough to warrant a visit to the hospital - ie non life threatening.

~Mummy My Tummy Hurts~

The bottle takes a while to get used to. Once the safety cap is removed, there is a small hole and the idea is to push the syringe into the hole until it clicks. The bottle can then be turned upside down and the syringe top can be pulled back. This releases a cloudy white liquid into the syringe. I have yet to have any leakages but it does seem weird that you cannot administer this medicine with a regular medicine spoon!

The syringe itself is easy to grip which is good if you have a wriggly baby or toddler to see to. The markings are very clear and bold and the syringe holds 5ml in 1ml, 2ml, 2.5ml, 3ml, 4ml and 5ml main markings. The medicine itself is quite thick and gloopy and takes like sweet strawberry juice. The syringe allows quick and hassle free dosage as it shoots the medicine into your childs mouth - no messing around and no mess in general.

My son is at the age where he can tell me if he has a sore tummy or discomfort anywhere on his body. With babies it is more difficult as they often cry and you are unable to determine if they need changed, fed etc. I can also clearly tell if my son is in pain and he can confirm that by telling me that he is. If it is during the day, I find Calpol settles it but if at night time, I find the Nurofen works much better as the pain relief lasts longer allowing Ryan to sleep without his tummy upsetting him. Although not listed on the box, we found Nurofen to relieve ear discomfort.

I haven't used it to relieve teething pain as Calpol was sufficient as Ryan wasn't too bad with his teething. My sister had a lot of bother with her youngest and his teething and this worked a treat on him. It gets to work quicker than paracetamol suspension and the relief is evident especially if a child manages to settle a bit better. For upset tummy and earache issues, we only had to administer this 3 times over the course of 48hours. With sore throats (which Ryan is prone to), we gave him a glycerin cough bottle during the day which kept on top of the discomfort. At night time, he took a small dose of Nurofen to allow him to sleep without being in pain from coughing and this was effective.

Most recently our Nurofen was used to reduce a temperature that our son had. Earlier in the week, he received 2 jabs (MMR and another) so not only did he have 2 poorly arms and felt rather sorry for himself, he was burning up. This was to be expected and Calpol didn't have much of an impact on the level of fever. Not only could I see his cheeks turning red, I could have used him as a personal radiator. As my son is 3, I gave him a 5ml dosage of Nurofen just before bed.

This worked quickly and my little terror was soon back to his normal self. He was exhausted from a long day and quickly fell asleep right through to 7am the next morning. I checked on him before going to bed and his body was the right temperature so clearly the medicine had the stated effect.

~Conclusion~

I would recommend any parent or grandparent to keep some Nurofen in their medicine cupboards. It does it's intended job, is easy to administer and providing you do not need to use it often, will last quite a while. My son experienced no side effects from taking this medicine.

Recommended!

Thanks for reading x