We started out our long weekend with a trip to the pediatrician for his "two month" check up. Our pediatrician opts to do this appointment at 6 weeks to get the first round of vaccines on board before mommy goes back to work. Since the CDC says the vaccines are safe and effective at 6 weeks, mommy is okay with it. This was mommy's first time "flying solo" with Gideon at an office visit, and he did such a great job! Our big boy is now 10 lb 12 oz and 23 inches long, making him 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for length. I was very pleased with the nurse who administered all of Gideon's immunizations- she went very fast and laid all of her equipment to the side so that I could pick him up as soon as she was done. There were just a few tears from the initial shock of the vaccines (which was still hard for mommy), but then he stopped crying as soon as I picked him up. I gave him some prophylactic acetaminophen before the appointment to help with soreness and fever, and we continued the APAP around the clock for 48 hours. This mommy LOVES infant acetaminophen; I had a different baby once it kicked in.
Speaking of acetaminophen, a brief pharmacist rant...
There used to be two types of children's acetaminophen liquids, infant drops (80 mg/ 0.8 mL) and children's suspension (160 mg/5 mL). With the old infant drops, two droppersful (1.6 mL) would equal the same acetaminophen dose as one teaspoonful (5 mL) of children's suspension. The problem with two concentrations on the shelf is the risk of accidental overdose for children. Say a mommy calls her pediatrician to get an acetaminophen dose for her child and is told to give one teaspoonful (5 mL). Mommy goes home, grabs infant drops, and measures out one teaspoonful- accidentally giving her child 500 mg of acetaminophen (the equivalent of an adult extra-strength Tylenol!), instead of the intended 160 mg. Children can't metabolize acetaminophen as well as adults, so this is a very dangerous problem. To combat this, the manufacturers discontinued the infant drops and began marketing infant acetaminophen concentrated the same as children's acetaminophen, 160 mg/5 mL. This is great news- standardized concentrations across the board. However, this pharmacist has a problem with the new packaging- there is a complete lack of dosing recommendations on the bottle for a child under 2 years old.
Now this mommy knows how to dose acetaminophen, but most mommies don't. What concerns me is a mom who has multiple children who thinks "well with my older child I just gave a full dropper," and doses her new baby the same way- giving her child a full dropper of the new infant suspension- the appropriate dose of acetaminophen for a 30+ pound child. See the problem?
So, a brief pharmacy PSA- always ask your pharmacist the appropriate dose of acetaminophen for your child, based on your child's weight. If you have any of the old infant drops in your medicine cabinet, throw them away! (They're probably close to expired, anyway).
Rant over, thanks for listening :)
After our MD visit, we took a weekend trip to Demopolis to visit with some sweet friends and to give the men a chance to go hunting. Our friends in Demopolis have many animals mounted on their walls, and Gideon LOVED looking at their fish. (Someone is going to have a great time in Ft. Myers in a few years!) Gideon also did great sleeping in his pack-n-play, and even slept from 11 to 6 one night! He handled the long car rides like a champ as well. We're blessed to have such a good car seat sleeper.
Before church on Sunday we took a family photo- check out my handsome men!
We're looking forward to many more adventures with our little guy!
No comments:
Post a Comment