does any child like that thing?

How could they? You have this wonderful sucky thing that relaxes and soothes you, and then one day they give it to you all innocent-like and bam! Cherry-flavored betrayal. It's diabolical.

t has never seen or even heard of these before

Jess - was the Tylenol prescribed? I thought it had all been taken off the shelves which is why I'm asking.

We can still get regular tylenol. Only the tylenol cold (which @#@!!! really works for I. and keeps her from _getting_ ear infections) is too dangerous for parents to have. Same with dimetap and other cold meds.

Why would they take Tylenol off the shelves, Stephanie? I read about some new guideline for not giving kids under two cold or cough meds, but nothing about Tylenol.

And hey, did I read it's your last day of work? Yay!

Inevitable Xpost. ::high-fives Sox:: I hate when they legislate against stupidity.

::high-fives Amy back:: me too.

Good to know - I have some of the old stuff around and haven't needed to buy anything new.

I still don't get how parents were dosing their kids wrong, but my friend's parents overdosed their granddaughter (like, gave her 4-5 times what they were supposed to) so I guess it does happen.

eta: I hear you on the stupidity thing. Even the grandparents I just mentioned will never do it again. They were so upsest with themselves. I guess I just dind't pay careful enough attention to the news since I knew what I had at home.

I'll admit I get a little OCD about that stuff. I check and double-check to make sure I'm reading TSP instead of TBSP before putting anything in my kid's mouth (or my own, for that matter). And honestly, when you've got a sick toddler who can't stop coughing, what are you supposed to do? Just pat them on the back? Ridiculous.

so I guess it does happen.

Sadly, I think it does - BUT there are thousands if not bazillions of cases where it doesn't. I shuddered when I read your post, but it also frustrated me because if you read the labels (and all the dosing instructions are different, so you have to read), know how much yoru child weighs, and use the right spoon/dropper/thingy - which we keep rubberbanded to the bottle, because those are all different too - you can, amazingly, get it right.

A quick count of the number of dropper/thingies in our med cabinet would reveal too many - and it's hard to keep them straight unless you police them like whoa... that may be part of the problem?

ETA - that, and the fact that you're usually holding a screaming/unhappy child, trying to read 3pt type on a cylindrical bottle, and it is 3 am. ei. I usually read the thing 23x and then ask DH: "this is right, isn't it?"

totally scary, the whole thing. I don't know what is the right decision. I just know what made I. better, so that she could breathe/ breathe and sleep at the same time. Humidifiers & steam showers only go so far.

Most of the overdosing comes from not using the dispenser or dropper included with the medicine and with overlap from care providers (babysitters, grandparents and even two parents who aren't communicating about when the last dose was given). Or by using multiple medications with the same ingredients (using Tylenol cold WITH another decongestant or cough medicine).

My doctor told us it was ok to give Owen & Olivia 1/4 teaspoon of decongestant when they were over six months old. But I don't think people realize just how tiny a dose that really is.

Oddly enough, I think the cold medicines (we used Triaminic Nighttime) worked with Owen but never with Olivia.

With ear infections lately, they sometimes don't even prescribe antibiotics right away (unless it's a severe infection). They'll just recommend Tylenol for the pain and fever and wait to see if the infection clears up on its own. If it doesn't, then they prescribe ABs.

Did Verizon buy some other company out, or was it a name change? I've never had them, yet I got a $14 check from them out of some class-action suit. It's not much, but, hey, money!