What does a mother grab at a high temperature in a child? Of course, for an antipyretic. In Russia and the CIS countries, the most common is a drug called Paracetamol. It is also a good pain medication. It is popular in the pharmacy chain due to its low price and availability. This is an excellent analogue of foreign drugs that are obsessively advertised on TV and in newspapers. Paracetamol is in no way inferior to foreign drugs.
The main blow of paracetamol in an adult or child’s disease begins with a blockage of the nervous system: pain is relieved and thermoregulation improves. Therefore, the medicine eliminates the symptom of pain and lowers body temperature. But this medication has a number of features, and you need to be alert with it. Everyone is familiar with a medicine like paracetamol. “Overdose”, “death” - these words are more suitable for drugs, but not for medicine. Unfortunately, this is not always true. It is worth talking about some of the nuances of this tool.
The first steps of paracetamol
In 1893, von Mehring published an article in a local newspaper, which analyzed in detail some studies and the results of the use of paracetamol - at that time a new analogue of aniline. The latter was widely used as an analgesic and antipyretic, but due to the danger of its use, many people died from its use.
Researchers on paracetamol were David Lester and Leon Greenberg (1947), as well as Julius Axelrod, Bernard Brody, Frederick Flynn (1948). In those years, the drug "Phenacetin" was widely distributed in America and Europe.
The leading pharmacological
company giant Bayer in those days did not recognize innovations and was skeptical of discoveries. Many drugs could not see the light, and only after years later they were remembered and given a second chance.
New Drug Recognition
Nevertheless, 1948 can be safely considered the date of the discovery of this medicine and its introduction into people's lives. It was this year that the existence of such a scientific fact as methemoglobinemia was scientifically proven by the example of experimental rats fed with paracetamol. This condition is accompanied by a decrease in temperature and anesthesia. It was found that under the influence of this drug, the rats did not feel painful “points”. Thus, they could live normally until the next attack of pain.
And only after almost ten years, the American giant pharmaceutical company Sterling-Winthrop decided to put it on sale, but with a tight fit, the bet was on children and adults, the drug seemed to be harmless. With the increasing popularity of paracetamol, “Phenacetin" has left the market, giving way to a new effective medicine. In 1955, another pharmaceutical company in America - MC Neil Laboratory - launches this drug under a different name - Tylenol. Trusting people began to buy a novelty for crazy money as a miracle cure. Of course, after years, the fraud was uncovered, but by that time the company had already managed to make big money on gullible people.
The wide distribution of this drug in Europe in 1956 (along with America) has led to the fact that many pharmaceutical companies still use paracetamol as the basis for drugs in their "new products". They repeat the fate of the American company "MC Neil Laboratory." Although people believe in the miracle of any advertised tablet, if only it would help, the word of mouth has always been and remains the most effective advertisement at all times. Sick people, having tested an expensive component and seeing a miracle, rarely read the composition of the medicine, although in most cases there is paracetamol. A well-known brand of medicine, such as Panadol, has in its composition paracetamol, although it costs an order of magnitude more expensive. Nearly 500 different preparations contain paracetamol as the basis of a medicine with additives and additional components.
The use of paracetamol in adults and children. Daily dose
The daily dose for one adult weighing 70 kilograms is 20-500 milligrams, which equals 1 / 2-2 tablets. The children's dose for a child weighing 30-35 kilograms at the age of 6-8 years is 1/2 tablet.
The instructions for the use of this drug say that the maximum amount per day for an adult should be 4 tablets. If it is exceeded, an overdose of paracetamol may occur. For children under the age of 12, this dose is halved, therefore, a maximum of 2 tablets per day!
Be sure to take the drug after a meal or during it with plenty of water. This is the main condition when taking the tablets inside. In no case do not give medicine to a child who refuses food, otherwise you can, not wanting to, cause an overdose. Most parents, because of the stubbornly not falling temperature in the child, begin to stuff him with this means, just to bring her down. It is absolutely impossible to do this.
When the temperature does not drop, despite the medications taken, you should consult a doctor or call an ambulance to find out the reason. If in case of suspected acute respiratory infections in a child, the use of paracetamol does not help, you should think about it. Perhaps he already has a more serious illness, such as tonsillitis or even pneumonia, which are treated with more complex drugs. And the sooner the doctor makes a diagnosis and starts giving the child the necessary medicines, the better. Sometimes due to an overdose of paracetamol, the symptoms of poisoning and the disease itself overlap. This greatly complicates the work of doctors.
When the child himself decided to eat pills
The lethal dose of paracetamol for an adult and even more so for a child is 10 tablets! Of course, no adult will give his child so much medicine. But there is a chance simply not to keep track of him. There were times when a child himself took several pills, because (according to him) he thought that he would recover better and his mother would stop feeling sad.
Medicines are very dangerous substances if you do not know how to handle them. First of all, when you give your child medicines, explain to him that they will help him recover. Tell us that a lot of pills or syrup is harmful, no matter how good or beneficial they are. The same should be said about vitamins.
A small child requires a special approach
In order for the children to understand why a lot is bad, give an example from the cartoon with a small white dog. She reasoned that if mustard makes a sandwich tastier, then it is just wonderful, because it is so little put in food. So, if you put a lot of it, it will be very, very tasty. And how then she was tormented by too spicy food. Children well remember bright funny examples, and, perhaps, an instructive cartoon will protect the child from dangerous games with medicines.
You can also ask the kindergarten teacher to organize an instructive lesson with all the children in the group. Talking toys or animators will clearly explain to children how to deal with medicines.
Other causes of overdose
Another issue is safety during storage of medicines. Very often you can see (in cartoons and movies) that there are many drugs next to the patient’s bed. And if in the case of an adult this is acceptable, for the child this option is dangerous. If you give him medications, immediately put them in the medicine cabinet after each dose. Of course, this is dreary, but safety is more important than a few minutes a day spent hiding the pills.
And the last option for an overdose is that the parents themselves give the child too many pills. In case of prolonged temperature, the child should not be stuffed with paracetamol again, otherwise, instead of fighting the temperature, you will fight for his life in intensive care!
Paracetamol overdose in children: symptoms
The children's body not only grows and develops with great speed, it also has a faster metabolism. If an overdose of paracetamol has occurred, the consequences are due to the fact that it settles on the organs, disrupting their normal function. The main organs responsible for the sedimentation of such a medicine are the liver and kidneys. But there is a positive point in this story: paracetamol does not burn the mucous membrane of the stomach. However, is it worth it to think about such things when the baby becomes ill?
Symptoms are manifested as: nausea, profuse vomiting, pallor of a child’s face, sharp
abdominal pains, skin rashes in the form of itching, urticaria or even
Quincke's edema. If you notice at least one of these manifestations, consult a doctor immediately. Even if it is not an overdose of paracetamol, other causes can be no less serious.
What to do with overdose symptoms
No matter how accurate you are, even if you have had a lot of discussions about the dangers of a large number of drugs, an overdose of paracetamol can happen to your child. First of all, do not try to panic and ask for help from neighbors or folk remedies, act clearly and collectively. The life of a child may depend on you. If an overdose of paracetamol has occurred, the symptoms will not take long. Here is a list of things to do:
- give a plentiful drink to the child and try to rinse the stomach;
- call an ambulance;
- give activated charcoal - it neutralizes the abundant ingress of the drug and absorbs part of it from the blood;
- to be near the child in a calm state.
The child will be scared by his own condition, he will cry and writhe in pain. An overdose of paracetamol may be accompanied by abdominal pain. Do not panic. If he also sees your experiences and tears, then he will be even more afraid.
You should be calm, you should talk with the child. He will probably ask what is happening to him. Answer him honestly, tell us about why there was an overdose of paracetamol, what to do in such a situation. Perhaps conversations would distract him from his symptoms and help him wait for the doctor to arrive. All additional steps to assist a child who has been poisoned with paracetamol must be performed under the supervision of a specialist.
Doctor's opinion
Immediately tell your doctor about your suspicions that paracetamol was the cause of your poor health . Overdose - how many tablets a child drank - this is the most important information. The doctor should find out about this even before you indicate the age and vaccinations of the baby.
An overdose of paracetamol in children can also be caused by body features, diseases: sensitivity to the drug, stomach ulcer, bronchial asthma, NSAIDs, renal or liver failure. Many scientists of the world prove that bronchial asthma is very closely associated with paracetamol and its use by the child during treatment for colds or ARI, flu.
To summarize
It is worth summing up the above. The main thing is to remember that for a child under 12 years of age, the maximum amount of the drug is no more than two tablets or two tablespoons of liquid syrup per day, and with a plentiful drink of warm water. Grandmothers also recommend drinking aspirin not with water, but with milk, in order to neutralize the harmful effects on the liver and kidneys in treating a child.
In case of overdose symptoms, first call an ambulance and induce vomiting in the child, while washing the stomach and giving activated charcoal to drink . Of course, a child’s illness is an unpleasant event in the family, but parental support and maternal affection will help the baby overcome the pain, because he will know that he is loved and this condition is temporary.