Yahoo Lifestyle Would You Drug Your Children For a Peaceful Night?
A survey of 26000 mums has found that one in 12 would medicate their kids to get a good night’s sleep and one in five would to cope with a long plane or car trip.
Sunrise spoke to two Australian parenting experts on the subject.
FOR: Dr Ginni Mansberg, GP and Practical Parenting expert
"I’m terrified answering here because the soapbox has gone so nuts on this subject. Sleep deprivation destroys families. It turns mum into an axe-wielding, homicidal maniac. Some mothers in my surgery, I expect by 6pm today to have mothers on the floor after back-to-back colds, ear infections and croup and they would do anything to have a night’s sleep and not snap at the kids.
"In short, yep, I believe mum getting a good night’s sleep is so important for the whole family but there are a couple of caveats, because most of the medications where the side effect is sleep, like antihistamines like Phenergan or Phelergan, or the cough medicines are really not recommended for children under two, unfortunately, and it’s terrible to take this option away from them. These poor parents, but unfortunately for under-twos we just can’t use it."
AGAINST: Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, parenting expert
"I’m actually going to go with the soapbox. Children aren’t robots you can chemically turn off when it suits you. You had all the fun of procreation. Parenting is hard sometimes and I worry enormously whether or not we’re taking away from children the ability to self soothe.
"I worry that parents will take that as an option, an easy option, rather than reading them a book, rather than singing them a song, it’s a little bit like if David came home tonight and Libby got a bit bored with him and just slipped him a little sedative into his Milo so she doesn’t have to have the hassle of talking to him. I don’t like this at all, this is Stepford children…
"There may be some extraordinary circumstances, and as Ginni said if you’re doing it under medical supervision, that’s fine. I just talked to a paediatrician mate of mine, and he said really it would have to be under strict medical supervision because of the possibility of bad side effects."
What do you think? Have you resorted to medicating your children to sleep, whether it be at home or on a long flight?
Discuss this with our forum members here
RELATED LINKS:
Advice for flying with a baby - long haul
Baby onboard - Tips for Flying with Kids
