A while ago I wrote a post about Calpol and why I don’t like it and don’t use it. Since then, I have been asked numerous times what the alternative is. If your child has a fever or febrile convulsions, what should you do? Surely a few e-numbers are a small price to pay?
*Disclaimer: Before I go further, I must stress that we live in a funny old world, where trying to help can get you into trouble. Although I stand by what I’m about to share and am confident in its use and effectiveness, I must remind you that I am not a doctor, I have not attended medical school and I am not distributing medical advice. I am simply sharing what I know, what I do, and what I believe is a suitable alternative. It is up to you to determine what is best for you and your family.
As I said in the Calpol article, a big problem in the UK is that we do not seem to have an alternative for treating children. In fact, a pharmacist told me not to use adult paracetamol on my baby, as it hadn’t been tested on babies. This frustrates me immensely, as other countries have child-friendly additive-free paracetamol readily available.
A friend in Australia contacted me with a possible solution to my predicament. She has been having behavioural difficulty with her son. The doctors have since put him on an elimination diet to try to find the root of the problem. They also gave her a ‘recipe’ for homemade paracetamol, which she shared with me, and I’m now sharing with you.
If you click on the image opposite, you will be taken to a how to guide for paracetamol in dosages for children, from the King Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia. Please use this responsibly, and if you are unsure of dosages speak to your doctor or health visitor about it.
We found the easiest way of administering the paracetamol liquid was to crush a tablet in a pestle and mortar, then using a syringe, add the right amount of water. To mix it up, we draw the powder & water mix up into the syringe, and squirt it out into the pestle and mortar again a few times. This mixes it nicely and makes sure there are no large pieces of the original tablet left. We then draw up the correct amount in the syringe and clean the outside so that none of the bitter liquid touches our daughter’s tongue. She opens her mouth (sometimes with a bit of persuasion) and we quickly squirt the liquid down.
It is not a pleasant taste so we follow it up with a milk feed.
Alternatively, pop a sachet of Ashton & Parsons powder in the mouth and then squirt the paracetamol down – it seems to provide a sufficient amount of sweetness.
This has worked really well for us, specifically when teething has kept Ameli awake at night and I am so grateful that we discovered a way of relieving her pain, without subjecting her to the possible side effects of unsuitable alternatives.
P.S. For the US, replace Calpol with other flavoured children’s pain medication (possibly Tylenol?) and read Paracetamol as Acetaminophen