What does a mother grab for when her baby has a high temperature? Of course, for the antipyretic. In Russia and the CIS countries, the most common is a drug called Paracetamol. It is also a good pain reliever. It is popular in the pharmacy network 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 impact of paracetamol in case of an illness of an adult or a child begins with a blockage of the nervous system: pain is relieved and thermoregulation improves. Therefore, the remedy eliminates the symptom of pain and lowers the body temperature. But this medication has a number of features, and you need to be on the alert with it. Everyone is familiar with such medicine as paracetamol. "Overdose", "death" - these words are more suitable for drugs, but not for medicine. Unfortunately, this is not always true. Worth mentioning somethe nuances of this remedy.
The first steps of paracetamol
In 1893, von Mehring published an article in a local newspaper, which analyzed in detail some of the studies and 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. The researchers of paracetamol were David Lester and Leon Greenberg (1947), as well as Julius Axelrod, Bernard Brodie, Frederick Flynn (1948). In those years, the drug "Phenacetin" was widely distributed in America and Europe.
The leading pharmaceutical giant Bayer at that time did not recognize innovations and was skeptical about discoveries. Many drugs never saw the light of day, and only years later they were remembered and given a second chance.
New drug recognition
And yet, 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 using the example of experimental rats fed with paracetamol. This condition is accompanied by a decrease in temperature and pain relief. It was found that under the influence of this drug, the rats did not feel painful "points". In this way, they could live normally until the next attack of pain.
And only after almost ten yearsthe American giant pharmaceutical company Sterling-Winthrop decided to put it on sale, but with great effort, the stake was on children and adults, the drug was presented as harmless. With the growing popularity of paracetamol, Phenacetin left the market, giving way to a new effective drug. In 1955, another pharmaceutical company in America - "M-si Neil Laboratories" - releases this drug under a different name - "Tylenol". Trusting people began to buy a novelty for big money as a miracle cure. Of course, years later the fraud was revealed, but by that time the company had already managed to make a lot of money on gullible people. The widespread use of this drug in Europe in 1956 (on a par with America) led to the Since then, many pharmaceutical companies in their "novelties" use paracetamol as the basis for drugs. They repeat the fate of the American company "Mr. Neil Laboratories". Although people believe in the miracle of any advertised pill, if only it helps, the most effective advertising at all times has been and remains word of mouth. Sick people, having tried an expensive component and seeing a miracle, rarely read the composition of the medicine, although in most cases paracetamol is present there. A well-known brand of drugs, such as Panadol, contains paracetamol, although it costs an order of magnitude more expensive. Almost 500 different preparations contain paracetamol as the basis of the drug with additives and additional components.
The use of paracetamol by adults and children. Daily dose
Dailythe dose per adult weighing over 70 kilograms is 20-500 milligrams, which is equal to 1/2-2 tablets. The pediatric dose for a child weighing 30-35 kilograms aged 6-8 years is 1/2 tablet.
The instructions for use of this drug say that the maximum amount per day per 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 meals or during it with plenty of water. This is the main condition when taking the tablets inside. Never give medicine to a child who refuses to eat, otherwise you may unwittingly cause an overdose. Most parents, due to the stubbornly not falling temperature in a child, begin to stuff him with this remedy, just to bring it down. This is absolutely impossible to do.
When the temperature does not drop, despite the medication 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 a sore throat or even pneumonia, which are treated with more complex drugs. And the sooner the doctor makes a diagnosis and begins to give the child the necessary medicines, the better. Sometimes due to the fact that there was an overdose of paracetamol, the symptoms of poisoning and theillnesses overlap. This makes the work of doctors very difficult.
When the child decides to eat pills on his own
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 you just won't follow it. There were cases when the child himself took several pills, because (according to him) he thought that he would get better faster, and his mother would stop being sad.
Medicines are very dangerous substances if you don't know how to handle them. The first thing you do when you give your child medication is to explain to him that it will help him get better. Tell them that a lot of pills or syrup is harmful, no matter how good and useful they may be. The same should be said about vitamins.
A small child needs special attention
In order for children to understand why a lot is bad, give an example from a cartoon with a small white dog. She reasoned that if mustard made a sandwich taste better, then it was just wonderful, because they put so little of it in food. So, if you put a lot of it, it will be very, very tasty. And then she suffered from too spicy food. Children remember bright funny examples well, 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 activity with all the children in the group. Talking toys or animators will clearly explain to children how tomanage medications.
Other causes of overdose
Another question is the safety of storing medicines. Very often you can see (in cartoons and movies) that there are a lot of medicines next to the patient's bed. And if in the case of an adult this is acceptable, for a child this option is dangerous. If you give him drugs, immediately put them in the medicine cabinet after each dose. Of course, it's a chore, but safety is more important than a few minutes a day spent hiding pills.
And the last overdose option - the parents themselves give the child too many pills. In the case of a prolonged temperature in a child, you should not stuff him again with paracetamol, otherwise, instead of fighting the temperature, you will fight for his life in intensive care!
Paracetamol overdose in children: symptoms
Children's body not only grows and develops at a high speed, it also has a faster metabolism. If an overdose of paracetamol occurs, the consequences are manifested due to the fact that it settles on the organs, disrupting their normal function. The main organs that are responsible for the sedimentation of such a drug are the liver and kidneys. But there is also a positive point in this story: paracetamol does not burn the gastric mucosa. However, is it worth thinking about such things when the baby has become ill?
Symptoms are manifested as: nausea, profuse vomiting, pallor of the child's face, sharp pains in the abdomen, skinrashes in the form of itching, urticaria, or even Quincke's edema. If you notice any of these symptoms, contact your doctor immediately. Even if it's not a paracetamol overdose, other causes can be just as serious.
What to do if you experience overdose symptoms
No matter how careful you are, even if you have had a lot of conversations 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 seek help from neighbors or folk remedies, act clearly and collectedly. Your child's life may depend on you. If an overdose of paracetamol has occurred, the symptoms will not keep you waiting. Here is a list of things to do:
- give plenty of drink to the child and try to flush the stomach;
- call an ambulance;
- give activated charcoal - it neutralizes the copious ingestion of the drug and absorbs part of it from the blood;
- being calm next to the child.
The child will be frightened by his own condition, he will cry and writhe in pain. An overdose of paracetamol may be accompanied by abdominal pain. Don't panic. If he also sees your feelings and tears, he will be even more scared.
You should be calm, you should talk to the child. He will probably ask what is happening to him. Answer him honestly, tell him why there was an overdose of paracetamol, what to do in such a situation. Maybe,talking will distract him from the symptoms and help him wait for the arrival of the doctor. All additional actions to help a child poisoned by paracetamol must be performed under the supervision of a specialist.
Doctor's Opinion
Tell your doctor right away if you suspect paracetamol is causing you to feel unwell. Overdose - how many tablets the 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. Overdose of paracetamol in children can also be caused by the characteristics of the body, diseases: sensitivity to the drug, stomach ulcers, bronchial asthma, NSAIDs, renal or hepatic insufficiency. Many scientists around the world prove that bronchial asthma is very closely related to paracetamol and its use by a child during treatment for colds or acute respiratory infections, flu.
Summarize
It is worth summarizing the above. The main thing is to remember that for a child under 12 years old, the maximum amount of the drug is no more than two tablets or two tablespoons of liquid syrup per day, and with plenty 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 when treating a child.
In case of symptoms of an overdose, the first thing to do is 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 pain,because he will know that he is loved, and this state is temporary.
