High risks for dosed-up kids
Leanne Edmistone
25sep04
"MOST people are pretty happy to resort to over-the-counter medication if their kids are not sleeping. It really saves children's lives – it stops mums from throwing them against the wall."
"Last week he was cranky because he lost his Elmo sunglasses, which are his favourite, and he would not calm down, so I gave him some Panadol, which settled him."
"To keep functioning my wife and I have to have a good night's sleep. So we trade off giving the drug to have a good night's sleep."
THESE are just some of the comments from parents, recorded by Australian scientists, who found parents were increasingly using over-the-counter (OTC) medication to sedate, calm and control young children.
Medicines such as cough mixtures, pain-relieving syrups and paracetamol [Quahog adds: paracetamol is acetaminophen] were widely used to control children's fractious moods and behaviour, as well as treat minor illnesses.
The OTCs also were found to be considered as a way to reduce the inconvenience to parents of having a sick child, and enable them to continue to work and send their child to care.
Leading author Dr Pascale Allotey, of the University of Melbourne, said there was an urgent need to review the prevalence and effects of "social medication", especially as there were some indications the use of OTCs was increasing.
Allotey said there was no evidence the drugs worked, a real danger of side-effects, over-medication and poisoning, and the risk of masking the symptoms of a more serious illness.
He also said constant use of OTCs could promote a culture of self-medication into adulthood and a mindset of seeing drugs as the only way of dealing with an issue.
Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital community child health director Dr Neil Wigg said he was not surprised at the findings and agreed with the risks outlined.
"It gives some insight into why parents do it, but just how common it is, is hard to conclude from this article."
Wigg said parents needed to be educated about alternative ways of coping with children's behaviour safely.
The study, published in the latest edition of Pediatrics, analysed data from two-hour in-depth interviews with 38 mothers and two fathers who had children aged less than five years.
Paracetamol was the most common medication used, followed by sedating antihistamines such as cough and cold preparations.
While teething and fever were the most common reasons named, parents said they often used OTCs as a pre-emptive treatment if their child was "grumpy", "generally unhappy", "over-tired", "fractious", "whining", to get them to sleep or behave better at child care or a friend's house.
The general perception of parents was that the "social medication" of children was widespread.
Allotey said the findings indicated the need for a larger, population-based study on the issues raised, the extent it was happening and the consequences.
Queensland Health has a 24-hour, seven-day a week Child Health Line operated by senior nurses to provide advice to parents. Phone 3862 2333 (Brisbane) or 1800 177 279 (rest of state).
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