Treat fever with adult Tylenol?

[antonia]

My daughter (5 1/2) has a fever (along with sore throat, congestion, headache). She's not eating much which I'm afraid will land us in the ER. Do your children do ok with adult Tylenol? Thought if I could bring the fever down she might eat more.   

Inactive ingredients are are corn starch, magnesium stearate, powdered cellulose, pregelatanized starch, sodium starch glycolate.

[colormist]

When I was a kid, my parents used to give me adult tylenol, but they broke the pills down to smaller sizes. I've heard others on here asking a pharmacist to do the same with adult pills for their young ones (since all the kids formulas have sugar in them). I'm not sure of the size you would need to give your daughter. I would check with your pharmacist before giving her adult medication. They can help with dosage sizes for humans under 90lbs.

EDIT to add: Ingredients look okay to me. I know that Advil has sugar in it, but most other generic over-the-counter painkillers are sugar free.

[antonia]

Thanks Colormist. The Tylenol did the trick. It made her feel a lot better and I was able to get some food down her.

Good to know Advil is a no. Thank you.

[Stefanie (Ziba)]

Our docs told us to stay away from tylenol since it gets processed through the liver. Ibuprofen is safer for liver patients. I get a bottle of ibuprofen compounded every 2 weeks with no syrups/flavors/sweeteners.

[jenn123]

I love our compounding pharmacy. They have done both ibuprofen and acetaminophen in small capsules for us without the sugars/fillers. We have also had lidocaine for dental procedure compounded without flavors/sugars. All have done the trick here.

[colormist]

Seconding Ziba! Acetaminophen/Tylenol is hard on the liver and ibuprofen is hard on the kidneys. If you have an option (and no pressing kidney concerns), opt for the ibuprofen. Of course, always check with your doctor first!

[antonia]

It may be noteworthy that a week after my last post on this thread we ended up in ER for hypoglycemia and ketoacidosis. Remember it well because it was Christmas Eve Day. No holiday celebrations that year, she was too ill. Whether the Tylenol played a role I can't say for sure, but we have since changed to ibuprofen for treating fever. Because we're undiagnosed we don't receive help from doctors (or receive support from insurance) in finding fructose free meds, my blood does boil a bit as I write that statement, but we did find Costco, Kirkland brand, ibuprofen to be sugar free. Although, I still wash off the red coating just in case there is some form of fructose lurking there. The last few times we've treated fever with ibuprofen she seemed to recover much faster. No trips to the ER... yet. 🤞

[colormist]

So many cold medicines are loaded with sugars--both adult and children's medications alike. I'm sorry this happened, Antonia. I do take Tylenol on occasion (as an adult) and do not have any issues so long as I'm not taking it on an empty stomach and it isn't coated in sugar.

[antonia]

I don't by any means blame the whole situation on Tylenol. We've given Tylenol in the past and she did just fine with it. She was coming off a respiratory illness and then had a bad, allergic reaction to wheat that prevented her from eating much of anything. But I just figure in the future when she's ill we don't need to put extra strain on the liver, so we'll just stick to ibuprofen from now on, now that I've found a safe form of it that is.