Tylenol/Motrin Dosing.... UPDATE

Brandon has had a fever for just about 24hrs and it does not seem to be going away with just Tylenol/ I have been giving it to hm every 4 hrs but I know you can alternate Tylenol and Motrin but Im dont remember how......I thought it was every 4 hrs on Tylenol and 6 on Motin meaning that every 2 hrs he could have something?

I also need a dosing chart for Tylenol and Motrin by weight... As of this morning I cant find it.

Also 1 more thing.... Can a child thats vomiting have motrin?

TIA

Nikki

 

Well I guess I just answered my own question.... i found this site (link below)

Says the closest you can give these meds is in rotation every 3 hrs... dosing chart on site incase anyone else needs it.

http://www.jaxpeds.com/tylenolmotrin.pdf

If I missed anything or am doing it wrong someone please feel free to correct me!!

Nikki

 

the website askdrsears also has good information on this...it is every three hours..and they do dosing by weight. As far as vomitting I would call your doctor about that. If there is continual vomitting and high fever I would think that is a cause for serious concern... getting a very high temp down quickly is important...and you can't do that if he isn't digesting the medicine.

Hope you all feel better soon. We're in the midst of a very bad cold here... my ds and dd have been temping high the past two days...dd was up to 104.4 today..so I've been doing the alternating tyl/motrin thing too..and relieved to find out that I can give benadryl along with it b/c their poor little noses are so stuffy. Don't think they have ear infections though b/c they aren't crying excessively...and still playing just fine. It's soo miserable when the kids get sick and this has been non-stop for us the whole month of february.

 

P.S. don't feel bad if you dosed too early... from what I've read you actually have to give 7x the dosage of tylenol or motrin in order to cause serious side-effects in children...and doctors will sometimes double dose the first dose in order to get a very high temp down quickly...not that I would endorse doing that without a doctor's permission..but it is comforting to know there is a little room for error. Last night I gave my dd motrin just two hours after her tylenol b/c her temp was up around 103 still. And thankfully I think I made the right call in not waiting any longer... sometimes tylenol just doesn't seem to cut it.

 

I have only been giving Tylenol Just bought thr Motrin as a back up.... I hate giving meds to the kids so I try not to.... As for his temp the highest it got was 102.00 and that was yesterday... Today its been in the 99's and 100.'s... Hes not at all acting normal though just laying around... All day yesterday and today and sleepinmg most of the day..... Im calling the ped. in the am...... I know this is not normal but when I dont feel good all I like to do is sleep too so I hope im not waiting to long.... We were in the ER on Sat am 300-500am so all day sat and today hes been laying around sleeping.

 

It could be that his body just needs a day or two to recover. If he's not at a temp over 101 I wouldn't bother rotating meds. In fact for my kids I don't give medication for temps under 100.4-temp taken through the ear. I've actually found that tylenol and/or motrin can make my kids tired..so if he's still on it then maybe that's why he's so tired?... more likely he's just catching up from a long night of not so much sleep. Hopefully he's fine in the morning. If he was vomitting that could be another reason why he's sluggish. My kids took a day or two to recover from the stomach bug. I personally took a week to feel like I had any energy after the bug... If he has had vomitting or diahryia (I can never spell that right!) you might want to try out some pedialyte ...but don't give them more than 24 oz in a day...and only for one day...you can screw up their electrolyte balance if you give it day after day...

 

I think were done with meds from here on out unless his fever spikes high..... I was reading on here and say where someone stated they put cool wash cloths on their childs head and armpits and it brought the temp down.. i tried this and so far its worked.... I was only putting them on his head and giving him warm baths......

Hes had 2 days to recover so heres hoping tom. hes somewhat bacl to normal..... He didnt vomit at all yesterday and hes back to a few times again today...... I have been giving him pedialyte but only in small amounts hes also had some jello today but now im starting to fear hes dehydrated... Hes had diarehhia (sp way off i know)2 times today and not many wet diapers at all.... Something new to worry about.....

By the way thanks for all the info your giving me!!

 

It sounds like he's got some kind of stomach bug. It sounds like you are doing the right thing with the fever. I think a lot of people forget that any kind of infection can cause fever. As long as his diarrhea (whew I think I finally got it spelled right!!) isn't soo excessive that he's getting really dehydrated I think you are okay. You want to watch for the dark circles under his eyes...or extreme fatigue. If he's even playing a little he's probably okay. If he's just having really wet poops 2 or 3 times a day that's okay... sometimes a stomach bug will start with vomitting one day and move on to diarrhea the next few days. Just wash your hands really well so that hopefully the rest of you stay in the clear.

In the meantime I'm hauling my little one off to the ped today. She was up again at 103.5 last night. She's probably fine... I've read that as long as the temp is below 104 it's possible that it's caused just by the cold virus she has. And even if she does have an ear infection antibiotic probably won't help...b/c it's probably caused by the virus that's causing the cold. Unfortunately you have to play it safe... my BIL's brother died from an ear infection (well, it was strep throat that went to his ear and then to his brain) so I'm a little parinoid... my sister also knew of a neighborhood child who died from a strep infection...they did the quick test and it came back negative...by the time the 24 hr test came back positive it was too late for him. I know this is really rare...and I tend to wait awhile to take my kids to the ped...but I do think about these situations and wonder if I should be more quick to take them in... but hey even in that one case he did go to the peds and it was still too late. Anyway thus far I've never been wrong in my mommy instinct... and I usually wind up paying $20 just to have the docs tell me what I already know. I'm hoping my dd won't have an ear infection.. otherwise they'll probably start her on an antibiotic that she doesn't really need... and if she does have an ear infection I'll be too parinoid to wait it out without the antibiotic anyway...ugh... the illnesses of childhood are just no fun.

 

i see everyone gave you great places to find it. i have been ultra organzing my house and this is what i did with my dosing chart.

All the kids medicine/tylenol etc... all went into a clear shoe box size organizer in the bath closet. and i taped the chart to the inside of the lid. i also marked the box what is in it. there is also a copy of the dosing chart in our families "binder" along with emergency #'s etc... in case a grandparent needed help... it's always there with the meds so i never have to scout for it.

 

that's a good idea... I'm thinking of printing off dr. sear's charts and sticking them somewhere convenient..the good thing is that from what they listed the dosing for antihistamine (like benadryl) and fever reducers like motrin or tylenol are all the same...smart! someone out there was thinking when they created the concentrations of these medicines!!

by the way, in case anyone was wondering, I did finally take my dd to the ped today..and yup, she's got a double ear infection along with this cold.. the ped thinks it's viral, but gave me an Rx for amoxicillin just in case... errrrggg...the same thing happened with older dd at this age... her only ear infection ever was viral and the antibiotic seemed to work at first but then on the last day her temp spiked really high again and then two days later it was totally gone... thankfully the ped made me wait it out a few days before switching her to a stronger antibiotic... and indeed it turned out to be viral. Very frustrating b/c most of these childhood illnesses really don't have anything that you can do for them..but if you are not careful you could wind up with some really bad bacteria infection...so better to be safe than sorry I guess... I have a hard time finding a balance between when to take them in or not... If I suspect an ear infection I know the peds will write an Rx, but on the other hand, it's pretty much useless if it's viral...which most ear infections are... but on the other hand my BIl's brother died from a strep infection gone bad...so you feel nervous waiting it out too long... anyway..sorry for stealing this post...hope your kiddies feel much better today!

 

UPDATE


I too took the boys to the peds today and he said and I quote..."you are doing everything just right keep up the good work" It felt so nice to actually hear the words.... The boys are not feeling any better but I was assured from the ped that neither of them are showing signs of dehydration.. and B's laying around for days on end was ok...... I hope they feel better soon.....

 

I know when dakota had his fevers running up near 104.5-105.0 (yes scary I know) his doctor and also the children's hospital doctor actually told me that you CAN give tylenol and motrin at the same time in the beginning to break the fever then do tylenol every four hours and motrin 2 hours later (6 hours). They generally don't recommend that because especially in the middle of the night you can forget when you gave the tyelnol or motrin and give the same thing 2 hours later which isn't good and can cause a double dose. but them together is fine. They have different medications in them so they don't interact with one another, just be prepared for some tired kids, but if they have a high fever they might be tired anyway. Sometimes that is the only way we can break the fevers around here, but then we can keep them down by switching on and off. Just be careful when you give what (i actually had to write it down so i didn't screw up).

Keri

 

yay for the encouragement from the peds! I on the other hand felt like the worst mommy in the world today... My dd, older one, started freaking out today at 4:30 that her ear hurt... this is NOT the one with the already diagnosed ear infection... So of course I rush all three over to the ped office to just make it before they close. I felt like the biggest dork..all three kids were crying, dinner hour-had to leave it getting cold and half finished on the stove, I'm a mess, didn't have enough cash to pay the co-pay, the only card they take is expired (dh told me later we had just gotten the new one in the mail today), and I couldn't find the checkbook... Emma is in clothes literally pulled from the hamper...laundry day has gotten backed up here b/c we haven't been getting any sleep around here

Anyway to make a long story short.. I wind up holding three screaming kids while the ped tries to check two of them (avielle already got checked yesterday)... and sure enough Emma has a double ear infection...pretty bad on the one side.. and Judah just has it starting on the left side. So now all three kids are on antibiotic..and he wrote out an rx for drops... I feel like the worst mommy in the world.. I should have had all three of them in yesterday..but the other two seemed so much better that I didn't want to expose them to the extra germs sitting around the doctors office... This month has just been soooooo lousy!!!