Tylenol ... for EVERYTHING!

I'm anti-meds in general. So yes, my opinion is this is too much, but you already know that. The few times my kids have been sick and I've bought OTC for them, I was told to only buy what is needed for their symptoms. Like if they have a cough, but no sore throat, DON'T buy something that is cough/sore throat/runny nose/fever, etc. ONLY buy something that is for cough only. Good luck.

We don't use pain medicine too often. I have used Tylenol for high fevers (to me 102 and up) but that’s about it. I use homeopathic medicines for colds and a healthy diet. My daughter has never taken antibiotics either (she will be 6 this month) we haven’t needed them and I don’t trust big pharma.

My hubby always wants to give Tylenol for everything too. If one of my step kids has a fever at 100 he will start giving it. It gets out of hand some days. He also takes too much himself when he has a headache or some other aliment. I keep trying to explain how dangerous it can be taking this stuff, but he refuses to listen.

Just because these drugs are sold over the counter doesn't mean they are 100% safe all the time and/or safe to use for every aliment.

I do something ESP with young children called "The Tylenol Test". It's because kids are often terrible about communicating pain, but the pain affects them (and us!) and I've suffered through too many "Headsmack!" moments where I found out after a couples days that 'x' problem was pain related.

Just as an example... A non sleeping kid given Tylenol will ONLY crash out if the no-sleep was being caused by pain. If they're still up, then that wasn't the cause.

So, yep, if my son wasn't sleeping well... Tylenol Test... Conked out? Okay, time to find the source. (2yo molars gave me a run for my money! Totally forgot about those, poor kid!)

I'm not 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' with windex... But I have no compunction about adminning necessary meds.

. When a medication makes someone feel better (within reason, I'm not talking break out the morphine!), then it's needed. If a kid is miserable due to pain of ANY kind (sunburn, teething, sinus infection/aka sniffles, cold/flu, injuries, etc) I'll absolutely use Tylenol. Or ibuprofen, depending And if it's needed/they're in pain, our bodies don't heal as quickly as they when you're alleviating the symptoms.

Honestly, liver damage wouldn't be my main concern. It would be that you are teaching your child to medicate everything. It's just not necessary. Of course if you need it then sure, but children need to understand medications are serious business. You wouldn't want her seeking it out and trying to take it herself by getting it out of the medicine cabinet.

I think your in laws sound a bit overboard for sure. Not quite sure how you deal with it since your husband seems to be that way too, but maybe just say something like we only use Tylenol for fevers and pain. If her nose continues to run I will consider allergy medicine. Thanks for calling and checking first before giving her meds, if you're ever wondering, just call me next time too.

Crazy.
That's extremely uninformed, in my opinion. "Let's just administer a pain killer for EVERYthing that is wrong." Jeeeez Louise!

There is a reason that there are a lot of different Tylenol formulations available (or at least there used to be---last time I went looking they had pulled a bunch of Tylenol products from the shelves due to re-labeling issues by the manufacturer or something, according to my pharmacist). Tylenol. Tylenol cold. Tylenol sinus. Tylenol PM. You get the idea. They are all pain relievers with something extra to treat additional symptoms that aren't pain.
If you don't have pain, why bother with the Tylenol? Just go for whatever treats that specific symptom! Take an antihistamine if you are congested, but no need for pain meds if you don't hurt or have a fever.

No, you are NOT crazy to think this is overboard. If she just wanted to give her SOMETHING to treat symptoms, then she is just one of those people who medicates every condition (My husband is like that, I am not. But at least I can understand that.) But treating every condition by giving Tylenol for every condition is just nonsense.

ETA:
For the record. I am not "anti-medication", but I am one who waits a long time before giving anything. Most of the time it ends up unnecessary. My husband pops an Advil at the first sign of a headache. Or Pepto at the first rumble of the stomach. He gets aggravated with me when he asks how my day was and I say something like, "I've had a headache off and on all day".... (He takes it as a complaint and then says "well did you TAKE anything for it?"). Uh... nooo... usually they fade away and I don't even realize when and come back the same way..slowly and almost unnoticed until, well I notice. They aren't that bad. I RARELY take anything, and they go away without disrupting my day at all.

But, I also am one that has the full arsenal in my medicine box in the top of the pantry. EVERY variety of tylenol/advil, EVERY version of cold/cough medicine (with and without acetaminophen/ibuprofen, with and without expectorants), expectorants only, cough meds only, sore throat lozenges, plain tylenol, plain advil, actual aspirin, zyrtec and allegra...because I want to treat the symptoms that are present, not random stuff that isn't.
I would lose it with someone dosing my kids with tylenol for any/every issue.

BAD IDEA.

Admittedly, I'm a very anti-medicine person unless I believe it's absolutely necessary. I'm one of those "let your body handle it" people.

That said, acetominophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) can cause liver damage if overdosed on. Obviously, taking too much over the course of a day or a few hours can do it, but I would imagine that REALLY frequent use (even within the prescribed amounts) could do damage eventually.

At least she didn't say Windex-Tylenol is one of the most dangerous medications in everyone's house-it will not cure sniffles-it will help a fever, as you know, brought on by a secondary bacterial infection that began with a virus-like a cold. I'm sure her heart is in the right place-but in this case, she is ....wrong. I'm not saying I never used it for my children-I did-but it was for fever and pain. Take care!

I tend to tend to the symptoms so no pain, no fever, no tylenol.

I saw your what happened. It drives me nuts when people suggest that from everything to "Just incase he has an ear infection" to trying to keep baby calm during an airline flight. Like you, I'll take it or give it to my daughter for fever, really over the top headache but I can probably count on one hand how many times she's had it in 10 years. I just saw someone recommend it for a baby that was 17 weeks old because he might be teething. Is Liver damage REALLY worth it? So No, I don't think you are nuts. I want my child to NEVER have to have a liver transplant or dialysis. If that means a little discomfort today, so be it. I also fear overuse of any medication means it won't be there if and when you really need it.

I only give Tylenol or Motrin if they are sick or extremely uncomfortable. My kid;s are teenagers now and are into sports so I di give Ibuprophen for swelling injuries. As far as fever goes, I really do believe that fever is a way of the body fixing itself so I don't give it unless my kid's are really uncomfortable. I certainly don't give anything for the sniffles or any little thing. I really think it can send a message that the answer to everything is a little pill, and that is a scary message to send!!

Gosh, I thought Tylenol was for pain or fever...teething, had shots, cold or flu, got hurt and have a bad owie, a headache...but a runny nose or to relax you?

Uh huh, I don't like to take or give meds unless it's necessary.

My 4 yr old hasn't had tylenol in probably a couple of years. I give ibuprofen first. Only do tylenol if I have to do the double-dose on fever reducers. Heck I am not sure I'd let my daughter stay over there if I knew my MIL was feeding her tylenol for every little thing! My son's 4 and has only had antibiotics once for strep. And he's constantly getting a 'bug' and a high fever. So it's not like he's never sick.

No you're not crazy. Protect your child.

I think it's sad that we put our babies on drugs.

Sniffles, gas, teething, growing pains, etc... A PILL is not going to fix the stuff, we need to learn to deal with a little discomfort in our lives. Our organs do not do well with these chemicals that we put in our bodies.
There are so many other ways to comfort our kids rather than giving them a pain killer.

I'd keep pain killers to the bare minimum if I were you. I never gave my kids medicine unless their noses were really stopped up, and then it was drops in the nose, not an ingested medicine that their liver had to deal with.

Tylenol dosing has changed but if she needs it fine if not let it go a sniffle is just a sniffle if it becomes bothersome the next day with headache running nose/congestion and child is uncomfortable do other remedies before turning to Tylenol.My great gram was all about baby bayer whateve aials you cure it with bayer asprin no we never did just listened

Haven't read the other responses but I usually give ibuprofen to my daughter, and that's only if she is in pain for some reason (like when she was teething or has had an ear infection), or running a fever.

Maybe you should just keep telling your MIL and your husband that pain and fever are the only things you are giving Tylenol or Motrin for because those are the only things those medications are indicated for. Stick to your guns. Maybe the next time you need to take your daughter to the pediatrician, have the doctor tell your MIL why we give medications like Tylenol and why we don't - maybe it will be different coming from them than from you. I have found that some people are not always very aware of what different medications actually do and even with pet owners, I have to explain that an antibiotic or whatever doesn't cure everything. I had to explain to one woman, whose dog came up positive for heartworm and therefore needed specific treatment to treat it, that no, just an antibiotic would not help. I also see a lot of people giving asprin or Tylenol to their PETS (which is TOXIC) "just because" they seemed to acting sick - not eating, lethargic, etc. And I feel like, ok what exactly do you expect the Tylenol to do? You don't even know WHY your pet is not acting like himself, and now you are potentially making it even worse!

Your post gave me a chuckle. At our house it's Tums that cures everything. Sounds like your MIL is a hypocondriac. I don't hand out pills of any kind at the drop of a hat, but on more than a few occasions one of the kids would get up out of bed with a "tummy ache". Sure enough, Tums did the trick!

There are times when Tylenol is appropriate, but you can't be taking that stuff (or any medication) like candy.
We've never had any trouble with plain aspirin, but even that we only take sparingly.

Im probably in the minority but I do give meds to myself and my kids if need be. I don't like to be hurting and I don't want my kids to either. Unless there is fever or a for sure pain, no I don't give it. My sister used to give my neice motrin every night so she could "relax". I had a fit and yep I let her know it! That's uncalled for and uneccessary. I don't let fevers run their course and we visit the doc each and every time they have fever but no, I don't think your wrong. Stand your ground and say no!
*** I will admit though in my own lil screwy world, midol does cure all my ailments! !!****

Tylenol ... for nothing. My son might get it for a fever but that is about it. Headaches, motrin and he pretty much gets no other meds. He used to take melatonin frequently, and now might have it on an overly exciting day - but that's about it.

You got a lot of answers already, but a couple things here...
One, I wish I knew where, I think I may have read it on Dr. Mercola's website, but I remember reading that one dose of Tylenol lowers people's immunity for something crazy like 20 days or 2 months.
I'll have to google that, or you might try googling it.

Secondly, for some reason, whenever I have taken Tylenol it really bothers my stomach, and my kids always seemed to vomit it up when they were little. I switched to ibuprofen and for some reason, the way our bodies are, that just works way better for us all the way around. I do make sure we have a little food in our stomach or a glass of milk before we take it.

Bottom line though, pain meds are only good for pain and inflammation. You MIL is going overboard. How awkward for you, sorry you have to deal with that. Your kid is your kid, she needs to respect your decisions.