General Chat

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2305529/Why-I-drug-children-airplanes-We-know-hell-bawling-toddlers-flights-But-mums-controversial-solution-.html

I suspect this stuff is also used whilst on actual holiday too.........I'm aghast.........I had a child who didn't go through the night properly til she was 3.....i would NEVER have drugged her.......though I have to say I did have older family members constantly telling me to give her Fennigan which I declined to do.

What are your views? Have you done it? Did it work? Would you do it now?

Just seen in the article that what they were suggesting was actually called Phenergan...just shows the notice I took of it lol

ps...my mother admitted using it on me and it had the opposite effect..apparently I stayed up all night singing and playing instead of most of it lol

God forbid NO,,,,,,,,,

I had a friend whos child screamed while in flight,,,,,,,and screamed off the flight,,,,,,,,,

reason was,,,,,,,a burst eardrum from the cabin pressure.! its very common for young children to suffer terrible ear ache while flying,,,,,,,imagine the terror if you found this out and for selfish reasons you had given your child stuff that knocks them out,

If your kids don't behave on flights don't fly! It's not rocket science, no pun intended :-)

Mind you the temptation to mix a Calpol cocktail whilst child minding at times does seem very tempting :-D


Mayfield.
Mum used to say a teaspoon of rum in hot milk used to work wonders for toddling Mayfield! Hic!

We never went on a plane with the children until the youngest was about 6, and old enough to know how to behave.

We probably wouldn't have used Phenergan on short haul flights, of say less than 4 hours, but if they kept crying, might well have done. A bit of crying helps to equalise the air pressure in the ears - continuous crying stress the parent which in turn feeds back to the child in a vicious circle

As for Kay??'s friends child with the burst ear drum - she'd have probably done the child a favour while they were flying, if she had used a sedative by taking the pain away even if she didn't realise the cause at the time.

Nothing worse than a disruptive child on a long haul flight..... And parents sitting there completely ignoring them.

Quite true PP.

On our first long-haul of 11 hours, we groaned when we saw a family with 4 children. They were actually very well behaved. The parents had booked the seats with the crib space meaning there was space on the floor for them to play. It might have been different had they not had room to move

They were so well behaved, I congratulated the mum when we got off :-D

Children can get all sorts of side affects from these sorts of medications though.......however many feet up in the air...possibly without emergency treatment....isn't it just bl**dy plain dangerous?

By the time that a child is old enough to fly, they’ve probably been given doses of painkillers in their own home which normally have a sedative effect.

One of ours went absolutely loopy with Calpol – there was a reported side effect at the time of hallucinations. Phenergan was the alternative.

As long as they’ve taken it before with no side effects and that the correct dosage is not exceeded, I see no problem sedating a distressed child if ‘distraction’ alternatives haven't worked.

Yes but isn't the active ingredient in Phenergan Promethazine Hydrochloride? Just been doing a bit of googling and I'm no expert....but from what I can gather...I don't think that's the active ingredient of any calpol based syrups they may have been using previously....powerful stuff in the wrong hands.

**edit*** I'd be far more in favour of child friendly flights and child free flights than I am sedating children...........

Although we did try to find out what the active ingredient was, I can't remember it now - it's a long time ago ;-)

Your point about side effects is relevant, which is why in my opinion the child should have had previous necessary experience of it. Any sedative/pain killer is dangerous if misused.

Even though I don't approve of the automatic use of sedation in the quoted instance, there comes a time for the sake of the distressed child, the over wrought parents and those sitting near them when needs must.

We’d both probably expect a crying child to wear themselves out. Unfortunately not everyone is willing to wait until that happens.

To Muffy's edit - if only!

I'm sure the relief would work both ways too DET.....it is horrible when your beloved offspring decide to go into one in public...my usual course of action would be to remove them outside til they'd calmed down...but that IS impossible on a plane obviously lol..(not that i ever took them on a plane at that age).but in general it .used to make me feel really awkward but it's happened to us all...and now i confess to sending sympathetic smiles to the parents who are going through it when i see it......as children aren't robots it's part of parenthood.......just the not so nice part lol.

I just wonder now if sales of Phenergan go up as a result of this......what with the summer holidays coming.....

I just hope that the parents who consider using this if they feel they must........and as it's not against the law and over the counter so it's their choice....I get that....are sensible about it and don't leave it til they're up in the air to try it for the first time.......my feeling is the use won't stop on the plane.

My fear is that the next step will be.....How about knocking them sparko so we can go to the local tavern without worrying about them waking.......we know we have a few hours ........

I became a mum in the 70s and we lived abroad.
When we were due to fly home, when son was about 5months old, I asked the doctor's advice about whether there was anything I could do to help son on the flight as I knew babies can find it very upsetting and I too experience terrific pain in my ear, so know what they might feel.
The doctor gave me phenergen and I gave son the prescribed amount.. He was OK, but I don't think he slept much more than usual on the flight.
Later I heard scares about side effects from taking phenergen and never used it again, although we did travel quite a bit.
I wouldn't use it now.

I would question someone's parenting skills if their child is constantly kicking the seat in front and flicking peanuts around, as per the article. That needs addressing before resorting to drugs.

Gwyn

Flew almost 6 hrs on Sunshine Airways into Oxfordshire July 1973 with 28 day old son.

He cried just after take off so I fed him and he went back into the sky cot and slept. Landed, went through customs with our long list of items - charged one pound for a newish radio. Waited for our car to arrive, drove towards Kent via London, son didn't wake up once since I'd fed him. Son cried close to the Elephant and Castle area on OH's aunt's doorstep, stopped there, fed him again, had cup of tea, carried on to Kent, he was fast asleep again.

Both he and his sister slept everytime we travelled anywhere, even as teenagers, within minutes of getting in the car they were asleep. :-)

Do you think its possible to arrange for that to happen on School Holidays in Supermarkets? :-D :-D :-D :-D ;-)

Nice one Merlin :-D :-D :-D

Maybe some adults might be drugged on planes too!

Mayfield ;-)

Mayfield,with Adults there is an alternative,Its called a "Parachute" :-D :-D :-D

After enduring three crying young children sitting in front of us on a five hour flight last year ,OH and I would have welcomed something to send us to sleep.

We flew around the world in 1975/76 ...............

we left with a 15 month old, she was 27 months old by the time we returned.

The first flight was 10 hours to the UK, then about 12 hours to South Africa, 14 hours to Australia, about 5 hours to NZ, about 4 hours to Fiji, about 6½ hours to Hawaii, and about 6 hours to Canada

Having had many flights disturbed by OPKs (Other Peoples Kids), I went to the doctor and asked for advice.

He told me to use Phenergan, warning that it could have the opposite effect to the one we wanted.

The plane stopped in Calgary, and we gave her the recommended dose as the plane was taking off from there. We put her on the floor under our feet, wrapped in a blanket ...................... she slept for 7 hours.

We then used it on every leg, and she slept a normal number of hours every time.

It made for a peaceful trip for ourselves, and everyone else.


I used it occasionally after we got back if there were sleep problems ......... and have always blessed the fact that it was available


More recently, we've had a friend who was moving from Canada to South Africa with 3 boys under 2 (1 age 2 and twins age 1) ................. flights from Canada to the UK and then to SA. Her mother accompanied them, so there was 1 adult for each child.

The Canada - UK leg was horrendous (her words!!), and she blessed the fact that someone told her about Phenergan in London for the much longer leg to SA