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Stupid Parenting - IMHO
This weekend we went camping. We had some friends come up on Sunday for the day and they also brought 2 friends of theirs. While at the beach we were just talking and my GF mentions that her son hasn?t been sleeping well because he?s teething [totally acceptable] her friend then in big-shocked-eyes says:
?Don?t you give him Tempra or Tylenol to sleep??
My Friend: ?uh?no he?s not sick. No fever, or anything so why would I give it to him??
?Ooohhh we always give it to Allessandra [daughter] whenever she gives us a hard time to sleep ? one tea spoon and she?s out like a light!?
I then ask: ?how often is ?always???
?about 2 times a week??
I guess at that point she looked at my horror-struck-pissed-off face and shut up. OMG!!!!
WHY would you drug your kid if they?re NOT sick?
Just because you can?t parent her?!?!
I was so mad & disgusted?I didn?t talk to her the rest of the day. That poor baby BTW ? the daughter is only 8 months old. 
Re: Stupid Parenting - IMHO
Holy crap! DD is 2 and a half and she only gets 1.75-2.0 ml when she is sick (the correct doseage for her weight). This woman is over dosing her child! My guess is she should only be getting like 1.5ml at most!
1 US teaspoon = 4.92892159 ml
Not a parent yet, but here's my take (not commenting on the dose or frequency, which both seem like a lot). I know lots of parents who will give their babies tylenol or something when they're teething. Maybe they aren't sick, but they are miserable and not sleeping, which is in turn making them almost sick. I think that's probably worse for a baby than having tylenol once in a while.
My nephew was miserable from teething, cried from 5 am until 10 am STRAIGHT. SIL gave him alocohol free kolik and he was happy as a clam.
Giving your baby Tylenol when teething is perfectly acceptable, IMHO- just because they're not ill doesn't mean they're not in a lot of pain. It's the same as popping one yourself when you have a headache. When my son's top teeth came in, his gums were swollen and purple for weeks, and I know it was ridiculously painful for him. So I gave him Tylenol. He doesn't need to be in pain, and we both need to sleep at night. It would be cruel to leave him awake all night, in pain, because he's "not sick".
However, a teaspoon does sound like a lot. I'm so bad with envisioning measurements of stuff but I don't think the dropper-full I give my son would fill a teaspoon.
Don't knock it until you have a teething baby.
There's no "parenting" involved when your baby's teething, miserable and not sleeping. It's called survival.
I'm sure that's what she must have meant, because I Googled it and I can't find anything that says that giving your baby Tylenol (even too much Tylenol) will make them drowsy.
I think we're talking two different ladies and two different babies here:
Lady 1 with teething son who doesn't give tylenol even when teething and Lady 2 with non-teething, not-sick 8 month old daughter who gets drugged 2X a week just because she cries.
No, I get that there are two separate parents- but Lady 2 must be talking about teething too (or some type of pain problem, who knows what it is, I guess) or Tylenol wouldn't help. Tylenol doesn't stop crying, and doesn't knock a baby out. I assumed that her baby must have been in some kind of pain as well, for her to give her baby Tylenol. Otherwise it wouldn't help her baby sleep. Everything I found when I Googled it a few minutes ago makes it sound like the baby would sleep worse if it had taken too much Tylenol (every site mentioned nausea, irritability, etc).
This exactly.
I that is so wrong to me!
I've known people who have used gravol on their kids for the same reason and I was shocked.
If you can't handle the baby/toddler without medication, when they are "giving you a bad time", then you probably shouldn't even have kids. No one ever said being a parent was easy!
You se this is the bad part - Lady #2 her child isn't teething, sick, in pain, ill nadda - the baby just gives her a hard time to sleep so she giver her tempra to make her sleep. [according to what she said] and it's been this way since the child was born. Her daughter doesn't even have teeth yet!!!
My friend Lady # 1 - would give tylenol when she thinks it's too much for him, like if hes screaming at the top of his lungs!! but for little cranky-ness [he's also been fighting his naps] she doesn't give it to him.
Lady # 2 is nutso!
I agree with you 100% - THAT is not the situation thought...read my other response....
It's actualy Tempra (I called my GF this a.m.) but exactly what you said!
Even though I'm not a parent quite yet, I do work in a daycare and have seen this on a number of occasions BUT only for pain management not just because the child was having trouble sleeping!! I don't really see a problem with giving a child Tylenol or something for pain if they are teething and having a real problem with it. I have seen children scream and cry until they've made themselves sick because it hurts so bad. In a case like this I would most likely give them something just to help them cope with the pain.
But giving them something just because they've having a hard time sleeping just doesn't make sense to me. I don't know why you would want to do that!! Especially since the child is only 8 months old!! Yikes!!
DD's been teething for almost 6 months, still no teeth to show for it, but is a screaming, miserable crank when it's at it's worst. This is when I give medication.
My pedi said Tempra/Tylenol/Motrin will only help babies to sleep if they are in pain (ie. allowing them to get the rest they are trying to have). There is nothing to make the baby drowsy in that medication, so that lady can't be using it as a sleep aid for her child b/c it doesn't cause sleep to happen. She's unnecessarily drugging her child.
There has to be a condition the child has that is causing it pain, whether the mother knows that or not. Otherwise the Tylenol/Tempra just wouldn't help the baby to sleep. In which case I can't blame her for continuing to use the Tylenol, if it helps (although a better course of action would be to figure out what's wrong with the baby...)
Has anyone heard of parents giving their baby Benadryl (sp?) to help them sleep. I can't remember where I heard it, I think it was when I was in the hospital (it's all a bit of a blur!). That to me is unnecessary drugging your child for your own benefit.
Trust me, there are times I wish there was a magic potion to make DD sleep, espcecially when I need a nap myself! But I would never give her anything unless I knew it was to help a problem and suitable for her age and size. 1 teaspon of tylenol - whatever it's for is too much!