Frazzled parents choosing to sedate kids

Every day, parents who are at their wit’s end use drugs like Benadryl to calm their children, reports the Toledo Blade. It is not unusual for parents to sedate child for a long airplane flight or to get them to sleep through the night.

Some doctors have recommended occasionally giving drugs to calm children or help them sleep. The documented cases of drug overdose in children, however, are well known. In some cases, the drugs involved are much stronger than Benadryl and are often linked to a history of prescription drug use in the family.

Occasional use of Benadryl to calm infants and young children is commonplace, but constitutes a "nontherapeutic" use of diphenhydramine, which is commonly used to treat coughs, colds, and hay fever. One doctor argues that such use may be a form of child abuse. Dosing is difficult, and even small increases can have serious consequences for infants due to their small size.

Some suggestions for calming a small one include holding, walking, rocking, swaddling, breastfeeding, and, one mother who teaches parenting suggested giving a cereal like Cheerios one at a time to a fussy child. When all else fails, maybe it’s time to ask a relative to help out so you can have a break.