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Giving Medicine to Baby and Toddlers
You may have heard of the recall of several types of children’s cold medicines not too long ago. You may have even been scared that such dangerous medicine was ever available. What you might not know, is that the medicines were not dangerous at all. The problem was parents overdosing their children without even knowing it.
Baby Medicine vs. Toddler Medicine vs. Adult Medicine
The key to all of the confusion is the way over the counter medications are produced. For an adult, Tylenol, for example, comes in several pill formats. Each pill contains a certain amount of acetaminophen, typically 325mg for Regular Strength Tylenol or 500 mg for Extra Strength Tylenol. As an adult, you swallow the pill with some water; no big deal.
For toddlers, asking them to swallow a pill with water is a little too much. Their small throats plus lessor control over both their swallowing and gag reflex makes standard pills a choking problem waiting to happen instead of helpful medicine on the way. Instead, toddler formulas of Tylenol, typically called Children’s Tylenol, are a liquid. The liquid contains 160 mg of acetaminophen in 5 ml of liquid, which equals 1 teaspoon. In other words, there is approximately 1/2 dose of adult Tylenol in each teaspoon of Children’s Tylenol. If you give your child two teaspoons of Children’s Tylenol, it is the same thing as giving them one Regular Strength Tylenol pill.
For babies, pills are of course out of the question. But, babies also can’t be expected to take a lot of liquid either. So, in Infants’ Tylenol Drops, there is 80 mg for every 0.8 ml. In other words, there is 100 mg of acetaminophen in every 1 ml of Infant Tylenol. Another way to put it is that in the same 5 mL that dosage that Children’s Tylenol uses to provide just 160 mg of medicine, there is 500 mg of acetaminophen, which is the equivalent of one whole adult extra strength dosage.
So, what’s the problem?
There isn’t one, as long as you measure correctly and accurately. But, if you think “close enough” as you measure out a teaspoon of medicine for your child, you might be causing a big problem.
This is exactly what was happening with those children’s cold medicines that got recalled. Parents who either lost the measuring cup from last time, or those who weren’t precise about their measurements were giving their children “just a little bit” over the proper dosage. However, as you can see above, just a little bit makes a huge difference in the more concentrated infant formulas. Even worse, since babies have small bodies, each extra bit counts for a high percentage of total body weight. So, when a baby that was supposed to get EXACTLY 2 mL got APPROXIMATELY 2 mL, they got the equivalent of 1 3/4 doses or maybe even 2 doses. Couple that with a parent impatient to wait the full amount of time in between dosages and you have a recipe for a big overdose of cold medicine, so rather than run the risk, the FDA pulled these types of medications.
Medical Measuring Syringes Used For Baby and Toddler Medications
The good news is that you aren’t really missing out on anything. Most pediatricians recommend against giving babies or toddlers medicines with multiple ingredients like most cold medicines. The bad news is that even with something like Children’s Tylenol or Children’s Motrin, you still want to be very precise with your measurements. Since babies and even some toddlers aren’t all that good at making sure everything in the little cup ends up in their mouth, you need something better.
If you get a prescription medication for your baby or toddler, the pharmacy will include a little oral delivery syringe with the medication to measure it with. These syringes are made of a clear-ish plastic and marked on the side with amounts indicating how much liquid is held in the syringe at each level.
The syringe works by placing the tip into the liquid and then drawing back the plunger. This sucks up the liquid medicine. Then, using the lines on the side of the syringe, you can push the plunger back down squirting the liquid back into the container until you have EXACTLY the right measurement. Place the tip inside baby’s mouth and slowly press down on the plunger. This ensures that all of the medicine ends up helping the baby, and none of it ends up on his face. It also ensures that she does not get any extra medication.
But, what if you don’t have a prescription and you need to give some Tylenol or Motrin (ibuprofen) to your baby or toddler? The syringe is still the best way to go. You can buy them as some pharmacies like Wal-greens or Rite Aid. However, you can get them for FREE at your local Target store. I found this out after wandering through the over the counter medicine area looking for children’s dosing syringes to buy and couldn’t find any. When I asked the pharmacist, he wandered over to an area behind the counter and came back with two syringes!
Tips For Giving Baby Medicine
By now, you know that the only way to give a baby medicine and do it right is with a medical syringe. Make sure you have some on hand, because you never know when a 2:00 AM trip to 7-11 to buy Children’s Motrin is coming.
Here are some other tips for giving babies and toddlers medicine.
- Aim the syringe so that it squirts into baby’s cheek and not directly into their throat, otherwise they might choke.
- For older children, press the syringe slowly and steadily and they will instinctively drink from it like a bottle.
- Replace your syringes every couple of months. Drop by a Target store and get new ones. Do it while you are filling a prescription (yours or anyone’s) to make it twice as nice, since they certainly have no trouble giving them out to paying customers. (I’ve never had a request refused, nor gotten even the slightest bit of attitude about it, but you never know.)
- Clean your syringes after every use and leave the parts unassembled on a plate to dry out.
- Throw away syringes after a bout of illness is complete. No sense keeping something around with germs on it to re-infect baby.
Make sure you use a baby syringe and follow your pediatrician’s guidelines about dosing. Generally, dosing based on weight is better than based on age, so make sure you ask about both Children’s Tylenol and Children’s Motrin at your next visit.
BPA Gives Babies Cancer – FDA Doesn’t Care
Nothing really “gives” you cancer. Your body’s cells react to certain chemicals or events in ways that lead to cells mutating into cancer cells. One of these chemicals is BPA, also known as bisphenol A. Yet, this chemical is likely in the baby bottles you are using to feed your child baby formula or pumped breast milk, or in your toddler sippy-cups and spill-proof cups and yes, it is increasing their risk for cancer.
How can this be? Isn’t the FDA supposed to regulate chemicals like these and keep greedy, corporations from poisoning us and our children. The answer, is yes they are, but no they don’t. Unfortunately the FDA has become increasingly political and subject to undue influence from outside interests. In this case the plastics industry and manufacturers of plastic products. So, BPA is not safe. BPA causes cancer. The government doesn’t care. Well, the US government anyway. BPA is banned in Canada by an apparently less tainted government agency.
In over 100 studies performed around the world by numerous well respected scientists, universities, and research centers, BPA was found to increase the risk of cancer. In just 2 studies, BPA was shown to be safe. Guess who paid for those 2 studies? The Plastics Industry. And, based on those 2 studies the FDA approved BPA as a safe chemical to use in making all kinds of products including, BABY BOTTLES!!!!
Make no mistake, this conclusion is undisputed, BPA does cause cancer. What the plastics industry argues is that the amount of BPA you get when you use products with BPA in them is not enough BPA to cause cancer. In other words, yes, we are using a cancer causing material in our plastic products, but don’t worry because there isn’t enough of it to hurt you. Yeah, I feel safer already.
Actually, this doesn’t this sound really familiar? Oh yeah, replace BPA with smoking and Plastics Industry with Tobacco Industry and you have a replay of the “debate” about whether or not smoking causes cancer. It is the exact same blueprint. Use industry studies to produce “results” that show something every non-industry funded study in the world shows to be dangerous and then pretend like that is a real conflict of science and not a sham.
My dad told me that no long ago in this country there was a notion that when it came to children and babies, that safety is what mattered above all else. That meant if there was even the slightest doubt that something wasn’t completely safe, then it wasn’t done. That is why baby food used to only come in glass jars, because we knew for sure that it was safe. These days, it seems that the government and the FDA especially seem far more interested in protecting their big corporate donations than in protecting our children, who let’s face it, don’t really contribute very much money to political campaigns.
The FDA even refused to require that products be labeled so that people could make their own decisions about BPA! I guess we regular people are just too stupid to know what is and isn’t good for us, so we can’t handle having truthful information about what a bottle does or doesn’t contain printed on the packaging.
Fortunately, the lie is beginning to unravel. A consortium of scientists have reported that the finding that BPA is safe is suspect at best and a sham at worst, especially in babies and children. The lead scientist from one of the studies used to “prove” that BPA was safe has said publicly that her research was flawed and even so, was never designed to offer proof that BPA was safe in anything other than the reproductive systems of rats.
Unfortunately, by the time the FDA gets around to doing the right thing, your baby could have been exposed to thousands of feedings from BPA tainted bottles. Since the FDA did not require labeling of plastics you can’t be sure if a bottle does or does not contain BPA unless it is labeled BPA-Free or Does Not Contain BPA. So, buy only baby bottles (and all other hard plastics) that are labeled BPA Free.
In the meantime, assume that all plastics not labeled BPA Free are cancer causing plastics.
Or, even easier, just remember one of these handy reminders:
NO BPA FREE label = CAUSES CANCER, DO NOT USE
CAUSES CANCER UNLESS LABELED BPA-FREE!
Baby Health Skin Care – Understanding Humidifiers
Whether it is to help with a cold that’s causing nasal congestion, or to help with a rash or dry skin, or even for chapped lips, sooner or later, you’ll end up needing a humidifier to help with the health of your baby. Getting the right humidifier is easy if you understand some basic concepts and information.
Which is better, warm humidifiers or cold humidifiers?
As you do research on humidifiers, you’ll come across conflicting information and recommendations. Part of that is because a lot of that information is old news, based on humidifier models that are not made anymore. The other part is because both main types of humidifiers have both pros and cons, but it is easy to break them down.
Warm Humidifiers Versus Cold Humidifiers
The main decision is warm humidifiers
Basically, the two arguments come down to safety versus bacteria. Warm humidifiers, as their name implies, use warm steam to produce humidity. Heat equals the potential for burns.
Cold humidifiers use either ultrasonic waves or air blown across wicks to send humidity into the air. Bacteria grows best in moist environments like on a humidifiers wick, or in the water tank itself. Turn on the humidifier and it blows not just humidity into the air, but that bacteria as well. Ultrasonic humidifiers
Choosing the Right Humidifier For Baby
If you keep a warm humidifier out of baby’s reach, then there is no need to worry about burns or bacteria. If you clean a cold humidifier properly every week, then there is no need to worry about burns or bacteria.
See what is going on here? Either choice is fine IF you use it responsibly. The problem, of course, is that people aren’t always responsible. So, the choice comes down to you. Are you more likely to not clean the humidifier every week? Or are you more likely to not keep the humidifier up on a shelf or table?
For us, there is no contest. Our lives are busy enough without worrying about constantly cleaning a humidifier. So, we use a modern warm humidifier with the heating element tucked away and protected, and we keep it up on a shelf with the cord behind the furniture. There is no way for our 2 year old to even touch it, let alone knock it over. No bacteria, no danger. Problem solved.
You might be the other way. If you can’t think of good places to put your humidifier other than the floor, then you are probably better off with the cold variety and making sure it gets frequent cleanings.
Best Humidifier Deals Online
If you are going to shop online, shop via the Health & Beauty categories, not the Baby categories.
Most reputable retailers put their products in the Health & Beauty because that is primarily where they belong. Shifty retailers make sure to put theirs in Baby knowing that uninformed parents might come looking there instead. You’ll find the same products but at a higher price.
If you want some starting points, here are some good ones from Amazon.
Baby Formula Rules
Baby Formula Has Rules
A lot of parenting comes with rules that are really more “best practices” than anything else. But, when it comes to baby formula, there are some real rules that have to be followed.
First, baby formula bottles cannot be re-used no matter how little the baby drinks. Bacteria from the baby’s mouth gets into the formula and it THRIVES there. A bottle that has been in the baby’s mouth for even one second is done for withing an hour. That’s the other rule. 1 hour shelf life once a drink has been taken, so if it is taking a long time to feed Junior after one hour a new bottle has to be made.
Do Not Microwave Baby Bottles
Rule number 2 is just as important. Never, ever, ever microwave baby formula inside a baby bottle. One reason is that it can get too hot and even with shaking one part might be hot enough to burn the baby’s mouth. Even worse is that baby bottles are routinely made from plastic using a compound that has been shown to cause cancer in over 100 studies. However, the FDA chose not to regulate this process because 2 studies said it didn’t. Guess who paid for the two studies? Hello, Plastics Industry. Yet again, goverment cares more about dollars. So our kids get cancer, at least no one has to worry about getting their campaign contributions next year. Microwaving any foodstuffs in plastics is a bad idea, but especially the formula that your super-sensative baby will be drinking. Heat the bottle another way, or if you want to microwave, make sure you do it outside of the bottle and then pour it in after.
Wash Your Hands All The Time
My father infamously tells the story of a day when he was in the Army, that an officer came up to him and asked if they taught him to wash his hands in basic training. To which my father replied, “No sir. They taught us how to not pee on our hands.”
If you knew my father, you would know that this story is certainly true. He has a point. The fact is that assuming nothing goes awry, your journey to the bathroom is really no different than the rest of the rooms you walk in and out of each day. I read somewhere once that in office buildings, the bathrooms are usually the cleanest space in the office. The reason is that most cleaning contracts specific that the bathrooms be cleaned completely each day while the break room may be specified to have the floor mopped every other day, the counters cleaned weekly, and the refrigerator handle…well, never. (If I were you, I’d take an anti-bacterial wet wipe to the fridge handle, microwave handle, and the door knob every once and a while.)
The Bathroom Isn’t Important
I told the famous army story in the presence of a research scientist who informed me that the universally known wash your hands when you use the bathroom rule has nothing to do with the bathroom (or your bathroom body parts) being any more contaminated that others. Rather, frequent hand washing is the number one way to prevent the spread of germs including colds. He said that numerous studies have shown that the people who wash their hands most often get the least colds. The reason is that while the cold virus is airborne, it isn’t very long lived in that way. If someone sneezes on you, then yes, you can count on getting sick. But, if they sneeze in the hallway and you walk through the area even three minutes later, any virus left in the air is probably so weak your body’s immune system will take it out before it infects you.
The way you usually get sick is that someone who is already sick somehow transfers the virus onto their hands. (I won’t go into details.) Then, they touch something like a door knob. Then, you touch the door knob. Now, at this point there is still a chance for you to not get sick. The virus can’t enter your body through the skin. It has to make contact with some opening like your eyes, ears, nose, or mouth. So, if you wash your hands before you touch your face, you may never get sick. Also, since you will be touching other stuff (the copier, for example) you would be spreading the virus to others who use the copier after you. But, if you wash your hands before you get to the copier, then you not only won’t get sick, but neither will the other people.
So what is the deal?
Well, the bathroom is where the water is, and the soap, and the towels. If they told you to wash your hands every hour, that wouldn’t work so well. Depending on where you were, there might not be a way to wash your hands at that time. If they told you to wash your hands every time you used the drinking fountain, there would be lots of people who never use the drinking fountain. But, everyone uses the bathroom multiple times per day, and there is always soap and water there even if you are out in the world. So, if everyone washes their hands every time they use the bathroom, then everyone is washing their hands at least a few times each day. Bingo, a rule to pass down to our youngest children to help keep them healthier.
Wash Them All The Time
Until your baby is mobile enough to touch public surfaces on their own, the only way they can be exposed to colds and other infections is from you. Their immune system is way weaker than yours so that “weak” cold virus that never makes you sick can make your baby sick. If it’s on your hands when you come home from work and you touch your baby — Bam! Sick baby.
So, make it a rule to wash your hands every time you use the bathroom (whether you pee on your hands or not — I don’t think that kind of training is exclusive to the military.) Also, wash you hands every time you transition environments. That is, wash your hands right before you leave work. We’re talking computer already off, phone on voice mail, bag on your shoulder, straight from the bathroom to the car, no stops. Then, wash your hands right when you come into the house BEFORE you pick up little Timmy or tousle his hair. That way, you won’t spread those germs into your house. It might be going too far, but I’d change clothes too.
Start washing your hands more often right now. Your baby will be sick less often than they would otherwise, and you’ll probably find that you get sick less often too. It’s a winning two-fer.
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