Do you tell your kids about possible side effects?

[Christine]

Well it seems we're all on the same page. So for instance, if your 5 year old were put on a medication for, say, allergies, you would NOT tell them that "this medicine will make you never grow big."?

Personally, I would find such a thing to be indicative of Munchausen's...but that's just me.

That sounds like a mean parent. Who would tell their child that and while spooning them the medicine? Sheesh!

Now my doctor HAS mentioned such a side effect to my son over his ADHD medication. However, my son was around 12 and the doctor was trying to see if they could try to cut the dosage back. He told my son that it is best to get by on as little as possible because the medicine doesn't come without a price and that it could effect his growth rate at higher amounts.

 

[luvmy3]

No way. My kids are bordrline hypochondriacs as it is, I don't need to feed the demon.

 

[OceanAnnie]

Goodness, I would never frighten a child with all that information. Some of those things happen to maybe one in two million patients, but if it's happened to anyone and been reported, they have to list it as a "possible" side-effect. A child would almost certainly imagine symptoms, especially a 5 year old, who is still in that stage of fantasy thought.

I did tell my DD13 about the potential for diarrhea the last time she took antibiotics, but only because it's a common side effect and I didn't want her to think something ELSE was wrong if that happened to her. I wouldn't tell her about all the ten million other things that MIGHT happen.

I don't load them up with the statistics of being killed in a car wreck every time we go to the store either.

Me too.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

At that age, no.

Honestly, my oldest is 9 and I would not tell her. Some meds need to be taken and as her caregiver it is my responsibility to weigh the risks. If I told my child that she had a risk of getting hives, shortness of breath, or dying--she'd refuse up and down to take it and then scrutinize any and every med there is.

She's too little to understand that the risks are reported b/c someone experienced them in the study--but most of the patients did not.

It is up to me to monitor her.

A parent is cruel to say something as what you mention.

My child is on a need to know basis only and thus far she does not need to know.

 

[englishteacha]

"They" are much more open about side effects now than they were when I was a kid/teen. I started taking Allegra for allergies when I was 15 and took it for 3 or 4 years. The whole time I had horrible, wish-I-could-curl-up-and-die menstrual pain during my time of the month. This was before they provided you with a list of side effects, so I just thought it was horrible to be female. Come to find out, it was a side effect, and had we known about it, I would have switched to a different medicine!

So while I don't think you should tell a child about side effects, the parent should definitely be aware, especially since the pharmacy gives you that lovely list now. I sure wish they did that in the early-mid 1990s!

 

[Disney Doll]

NO I wouldn't tell because then the kid will get those side effects.

 

[tazdev3225]

I never did because as their parent I had the information. However, as my youngest DD got old enough to understand things whenever she took an antibiotic I told her that she had to tell me if she felt weird, or itchy, things along those lines. She is severely allergic to the "cillins" and I needed to know if any other antibiotic caused any problems. She took ampicillin once as a baby and her face swelled so badly she had slits for eyes. In this case it was important for her to know about that side effect.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

Actually, I do....to a degree. My ds tends to experience facial swelling. Any time he's taken something that lists facial swelling as a possible side effect...whammo. Thankfully he usually just gets huge lips that look like all of the hollywood starlets......no airway problems thankfully. Angelina Jolie has nothin on this kid. So I do tell him to make sure to tell me if anything feels "tingly"...that's how he describes when it's about to happen and watch him carefully. He thinks it's hilarious....it scares the snot out of me.

I wouldn't just randomly list the side effects to him and I definitely would to dd.....she could talk herself into anything!!

 

[Mermaid02]

No- as the parent it is my decision to put them on the medication or not.... why scare them?

 

[wdwfan16]

No. The parent needs to be on the lookout for the side effects.

 

[ICF]

are you serious? Who would sit down and have a discussion like that with a 5 year old?

 

[LuvOrlando]

I like the "have a healthy respect for medicine but they are not necessarily wrong" approach myself. I make them aware that they are on a new medicine and that all medicines are poisons, but that sometimes we need them if an illness is more dangerous than the medicine. Then I give them a basic rundown depending on the side effect warning like: let me know if your heart races, if you get a headache, if you feel dizzy, stop going to the bathroom ect. just because I don't want them to assume whatever weirdness is normal and ignore it. My kids tend to do that.

Frankly, since the dawn of time the natural state of disease kills way more people than medicine and vaccines do so I don't see the point of scaring them from a necessary evil.

 

[Nolcrest]

I don't even want to know the side effects for meds I will take. I don't want to imagine symptoms. I keep the drug insert and should I experience anything out of the ordinary, then I will read it. I do make sure though that any prescription I may have does not interfere with any other meds I may be taking. So no, I would never tell my child possible side effects.

 

[Jennasis]

are you serious? Who would sit down and have a discussion like that with a 5 year old?

A moron...a complete moron.

 

[Minniemama350]

No, but recently DS9 had to take some really powerful stuff for a staph infection on his hand that we thought was MRSA. I did tell him to tell me if anything unusual happened or he felt weird in anyway. I would not have told him the bottom line. He would have freaked out and imagined it all. In the end, he did get a reaction, but one totally different from what we were expecting. I did tell his teacher about the symptoms we were concerned about.

 

[cheermom1]

A moron...a complete moron.

I'm taking it as you know someone that did this? and to answer you question No I would not ...most 5 yr olds would have NO clue what was being said to them anyway...

 

[Jennasis]

I'm taking it as you know someone that did this? and to answer you question No I would not ...most 5 yr olds would have NO clue what was being said to them anyway...

Yeah...and it fills me with angries.

 

[cheermom1]

Yeah...and it fills me with angries.

Don't blame you..dh's ex is the word about things like this and the youngest is convinced he is sick beyond belief every time he has the sniffles..

have you been able to talk to this person and just kinda put a bug in their ear about your concern?

 

[bumbershoot]

What allergy medication can cause growth problems?



DS hears many drug ads, and just like DH and I do, we hear the problems more than we hear the perceived benefits.

He also hears me making sure that there are no colors in things, making sure capsules aren't made of animals, and asking what the syrupy things are made out of. He sees me reading the backs of boxes to make sure things are safe for him.

He's 5, and it's laughable to think that he doesn't understand things being said to him... He notices these things, knows what he can and cannot have, and wants to make sure that things are safe for him.


He took antibiotics in October, and I had to pay for them out of pocket, getting them at a true compounding pharmacy, to make sure that they were safe for him and to make sure the capsules didn't involve gelatin. We talked about what antibiotics do, and that they might cause his tummy to be upset, because along with the "bad" bacteria, they kill the "good" bacteria as well. So some tummy stuff was normal, but that if he really felt AWFUL he needed to tell me, so we could get him something different.

And...he had NO stomach problems at all. Which is amazing, because when I take antibiotics, I am nauseated from about half an hour after taking the first dose all the way through the last dose.


Before we realized his problem with corn syrup and things based on that, he had some massive, negative, reactions (not life threatening, but big all the same) to them. His dentist asked that he take something like benadryl (which was stupid of him, based on stupid reasons he wasn't thinking through, but we love the guy and wanted to comply) and it had the opposite effect b/c of the corn syrup. He *remembers* these reactions, and wants to make sure they do NOT happen again.


We talk through everything he takes. He hasn't taken anything like an allergy medication that might have bigger side effects, so I'm not sure what I would do in that case. But...it's his body. And there are other ways to help with allergies (for me, chiropractic care and being vegan would eliminate any of my allergies, for instance...when I have an asthma attack, nettle tea works better than my albuterol, for instance, AND keeps me from how homicidal albuterol makes me). So it would be worth a discussion.

But...we've been having these discussions around him his whole life; he's grown up with it. It's not just a quick "let me mess with you" sound bite. It's an entire way of our life, to really discuss the things we're taking and be mindful of it all.

 

[Jennasis]

Don't blame you..dh's ex is the word about things like this and the youngest is convinced he is sick beyond belief every time he has the sniffles..

have you been able to talk to this person and just kinda put a bug in their ear about your concern?

No. But I believe the father has raised cain about it. Just another in a long list of idiot moves by a lunatic mom.

What allergy medication can cause growth problems?.

no clue.