Three or four years ago, when Toby was a toddler, he had a fever. In general I don’t give analgesics to the kids simply to reduce a fever, but I will give it to them if they are miserable and feeling awful, to help them feel a little better when they are sick. This particular time when Toby was sick I offered him (for the first time) some liquid Panadol (for babies) which he took and very soon afterwards he vomited it up. Andrew went to a pharmacy to get a different analgesic, one we hoped he would keep down, but since that day, until yesterday, I had been unable to get any analgesic past his lips. He would clamp his mouth shut, turn his head away and bury his head in the couch or into me so that I couldn’t get the medicine into his mouth. Since that day Toby has suffered through fevers and colds without any way of relieving pain or the fevers. When he has been particularly miserable he has agreed to take some medication, but as soon as it got near his lips he baulked and refused it. Whenever I have taken him to the doctor because he has been sick, they always say “and relieve pain with Panadol” or similar, and none of the doctors ever understood that I couldn’t get him to take any medication.

Yesterday (and the night before) Toby was complaining of a sick tummy. He was in pain. He couldn’t rest, his pain made him moan and pace through the house, stopping where he wanted to rest for a moment (bed, couch, floor) and lying down, but unable to find a comfortable spot he was quickly back on his feet and pacing the house again. When he did manage to lie down he kept twisting and turning on the bed, and his legs made the walking action. He was completely miserable and agreed to take some Panadol. I tried to disguise the medicine in some apple/carrot/ginger juice (which is how we got some antibiotics into him last year when he had an ear infection). It took about 15 minutes to drink the lot, but then 15 minutes later he vomited it all up again. I took him to the doctor who thought he probably should go to the hospital, but he did suggest that we take him home for a couple of hours, give him some pain relief and keep an eye on him first just to see if he improved given a little time. I asked what pain relief I can give, explained the situation, and then he decided we should just go to hospital and told me that they can give him pain relief there. Hmmm…

OK, so we head to the hospital. As far as hospital visits go, it was most pleasant. We didn’t have to wait in the waiting room, were immediately given a bed (though Toby preferred to lie and moan on the ground for a bit before getting onto the bed) and a lovely doctor and nurse came to see Toby. The doctor gave him something for his nausea/sick feeling in the tummy (a dissolving tablet that went under his tongue) and some Panadol as a liquid suspension. I was quite surprised that Toby took the syringe and drank the fluid, but immediately he said he was going to be sick and vomited it all back up. We were asked if we’d tried giving him a tablet, or other analgesic suspensions, and I explained we hadn’t tried a tablet but we had never been successful getting him to take any other analgesic so we didn’t know if he could keep them down. She was amazed and asked how we dealt with fevers! Yep, nothing, nada, just rode it out. So a bit later we tried half a tablet. Toby swallowed it, though he went a little red in the face doing it. And then vomited that back up. The doctor was wanting to send us home (Toby not, in reality, being sick enough to be at the hospital), but she didn’t want us to go if we couldn’t find him some relief! I don’t think she’d ever come across a child that couldn’t keep an analgesic down, and she felt really sorry for him. She told us some parents came with chewable Panadol but they didn’t have any or sell any at the hospital, so we finally took Toby home and made a stop on the way to pick up the chewable version of the analgesic. The pharmacist’s only other suggestion was a suppository, but I figured the chewable Panadol is worth a try before having to go that option. So far Toby hasn’t tried it. He fell asleep as soon as we got home and he seems ok this morning.

I’ve never felt like a doctor believe me with my inability to give Toby any analgesics, but the doctor yesterday saw and really sympathised. It was nice to be understood, finally. Now that Toby is older he might be more accommodating to see if other brands of analgesics work for him, but hopefully we won’t have to test them out for a long while.