preemptive bedtime tylenol - good or bad idea?

theuntaggablek · March 2012

So the last three nights LO has woken up in the middle of the night screaming around 2:30 or 2:45 AM and had difficulty getting back to sleep. Having ruled out illness, diapers, or hunger....I'm thinking teething?

Last night, after he'd been crying for a good long while and daddy wasn't having much luck, I gave him a dose of tylenol and snuggled with him for a while until he could fall asleep. The tylenol, or the lullabies, worked.

DH and I had a debate tonight about whether to try dosing with tylenol at bedtime to preempt the teething waking would work. We're not usually big on giving the kid drugs, and hear that tylenol is now associated with asthma?!? but also would like him not to be in pain (and us to get better sleep tonight).

What do you think?

EarsToYou · March 2012

I say give it to him. Hopefully you'll all get some sleep, and if you do, you'll have a good idea it's probably teething related. If not, one extra dose of tylenol won't kill him. (FTR, I'm not one to dose unnecessarily either.)

OhSewCrafty · March 2012

Since Tylenol is only a 4-6 hour dosing, it wouldn't really help with pain that springs up at that hour of the night. Advil is 8 hours, which may help more, but I understand your concern.

It could also be just the normal, super fun, random waking that these kids do. I'd give it another few nights and see how he does. Good luck!

rainydayluck · March 2012

Grrrr, I had a response all typed up then it gave me an error.

Anyway, yes, we give ibuprofen before bed if she has been grouchy, drooly and looks like teething. After a couple nights we try it without and see if she is ready to sleep without it.

[Deleted User] · March 2012

It sounds like teething, and at this stage it's probably molars. We've been doing ibuprofen because it's an anti-inflam & it lasts longer. Whatever medicine you decide you are comfortable with, be it ibu or tylenol, I say give it before bedtime.

theuntaggablek · March 2012

Thanks ladies! We gave him some ibuprofen and will see what happens.

Hopefully we won't all be up from 2:30-4:00 AM again. But just in case, I'm going to bed. Can't take another day of sleep deprivation!

belizeitornot · March 2012

You've probably already made your decison as it's 11:30 here on the east coast but I say do it. We have done it in the past for that same reasoning. We don't make a habit of it and we usually find that after a night or two of the preemptive dosing, she's worked through whatever the issue was and back to her usual sleep routine.

Don't feel bad, everybody needs sleep!

ETA: I should have read all the way through the comments before posting since you posted back already. Duh.

enjoylife · March 2012

Hope you guys had a restful nite. We do preemptive ibuprofen when he has been a crank all day and hes been teething pretty regularly for the last two weeks now. 2 of the 4 have finally popped through a week ago and I think the other two will be coming shortly ithe next couple days.....they are sooo close. The first couple nights were rough til we realized it was his teeth, now hes sleeping better. Good luck!

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