Annoyed

[ivy]

Well annoyed this morning and if i say the truth still am . My first mindee of the day arrived this morning at 6.30 , first thing she asks me if i will give her child 2.5ml amoxicilin at 7.30 am , filled in permission form etc .
When i went to administer medicine i noticed it said 5 ml , phoned mother and left message for her to contact me with regards to discrepancy as to amount . Gave the child 2.5 ml deciding i could give the extrfa 2.5 ml when she phones me .
Mother phones me and i explain the problem and she informs me that it is her other sons medicine as she had not been able to get an appointment for the doctors and she had some left over thought she would use it until she saw her doctor.

I was bouncing to say the least .
Immediately wrote a statement in my incident book and got mother to sign when she arrived . Informed her in no uncertain terms that i was not going to give someone else is medicine to her youngest and also that she had no right to withhold antibiotics from her other son who should have competed his full course of medicine . This is a Polish family who i have been experiencing a few problems with lately .

[shortstuff]

Glad you wrote it up. I think I would be keeping a very close eye on this one.

[ivy]

Have already changed the medicine permission form to contain a piece about checking the ownership of the medicine to be given . Did not think to check the medicine bottle to see what name was on there , never happened in 32 years of working with children .

[Mouse]

Didn't it have a name on the bottle? If it didn't have a name I wouldn't have given it and if it had the wrong name I wouldn't have given it.

I have a tick box on my medication permission form so I make sure the medicine is named.

[ivy]

It did have a name on the bottle , not who i was being asked to give it to . I only noticed that mother had said wrong dosage , did not think i had to check who it was to be given to , as i said never in 32 years has anyone done this .

[bunyip]

Definitely keep all your records thorough on this one, and keep an eye on what else the mum tries to pull in future.

This could've had serious consequences.

Why would a mum send the wrong bottle?

1. Both children were prescribed the same medication. She collected both bottles at the pharmacy. She picked up the wrong bottle on the way out to your place.

2. Both children were prescribed the same medication. She didn't get the 2nd lot from the pharmacy cos she still had some of the 1st left over from the other child's earlier illness. (Maybe she thought she had to pay for 'scrips if she didn't fully understand.) Not good, cos courses of antibiotics must be completed, even if the child felt better before that point (as they usually do.)

3. GP prescribed an antibiotic, but not necessarily the same one. Mum used the antibiotic she had left at home, rather than go to the pharmacy for the one specifically prescribed. This is venturing onto dangerous ground. Some people (bunyip included) are seriously sensitive/allergic to some types of antibiotic but can take others.

4. Mum never saw the GP but 'self-diagnosed' OBO her child cos symptoms appeared similar to the earlier illness with the other child. This is getting really serious now.

Scenarios 3 and 4 could have very nasty outcomes and end up in hospital. Mum had no right to put you in this position.

There is another possibility which, whilst very rare, cannot be ruled out or ignored: 'fabricated or induced illness by carers' (aka Munchausen syndrome by proxy.) This is a serious safeguarding issue, so look it up and bear it in mind - but don't jump to the conclusion just cos I brought it up.

To avoid this sort of scenario, we all need to check the labels and follow the labels - not a mum's instructions.

[amylouise867]

Didn't it have a name on the bottle? If it didn't have a name I wouldn't have given it and if it had the wrong name I wouldn't have given it. I have a tick box on my medication permission form so I make sure the medicine is named.

That's wise - will do this myself

I do check but I think having a box to tick etc makes it more concrete & there's proof you've checked too.

[ivy]

Thank's bunyip .
Yes mother self diagnosed the child as she had not been able to get an appointment for the doctors . The medication was left over from her other child who is 2 years older .
After i explained that i would not be able to give the medication i also told her that she has to complete all courses of medication to children when they receive medicine .
To carry the story on today , she had an appointment last night for doctors and child has been given Amoxicilin (checked name and date ) but mother continues to tell me that medication states on the bottle 5ml to be given but she thinks that child should be given only 2.5 ml. I have refused to have that child today as he is very poorly coughing to the point of being sick when he arrived and i will not accept him until she gets it sorted about the medication , if she is worried about the dosage to phone and check with doctor.
Have written up again and got her to sign .

[smurfette]

Thank's bunyip . Yes mother self diagnosed the child as she had not been able to get an appointment for the doctors . The medication was left over from her other child who is 2 years older . After i explained that i would not be able to give the medication i also told her that she has to complete all courses of medication to children when they receive medicine . To carry the story on today , she had an appointment last night for doctors and child has been given Amoxicilin (checked name and date ) but mother continues to tell me that medication states on the bottle 5ml to be given but she thinks that child should be given only 2.5 ml. I have refused to have that child today as he is very poorly coughing to the point of being sick when he arrived and i will not accept him until she gets it sorted about the medication , if she is worried about the dosage to phone and check with doctor. Have written up again and got her to sign .

Madness he won't get better if he doesn't have enough! Poor you that was rough and a lesson to us all, I guess here the problem is that she wouldn't have thought twice about doing it at home and perhaps didn't realise it puts u in a professionally compromising position! Hope she rings dr xx

[bunyip]

Thank's bunyip .
Yes mother self diagnosed the child as she had not been able to get an appointment for the doctors . The medication was left over from her other child who is 2 years older .
After i explained that i would not be able to give the medication i also told her that she has to complete all courses of medication to children when they receive medicine .
To carry the story on today , she had an appointment last night for doctors and child has been given Amoxicilin (checked name and date ) but mother continues to tell me that medication states on the bottle 5ml to be given but she thinks that child should be given only 2.5 ml. I have refused to have that child today as he is very poorly coughing to the point of being sick when he arrived and i will not accept him until she gets it sorted about the medication , if she is worried about the dosage to phone and check with doctor.
Have written up again and got her to sign .

Well done you for being firm.

You can only give the medication dosage as prescribed and the child should finish the full course. As well as excluding until fit to attend, you should tell the mum she will either have to not attend until the full course has been completed, or give consent for you to give the appropriate dose until the course is complete.

I'd be quite tempted to phone her surgery or possibly follow your safeguarding channels. At the very least note this as a concern.

Mum's behaviour and reasoning is bizarre. Why does she think she knows more about pharmacology than her GP? So far she has made a botched self-diagnosis; administered inappropriate medication; under-dosed; and failed to complete a course of antibiotics. I can only surmise that she's failing to make either of her children better, whilst doing everything possible to make her children's bodies resistant to antibiotics. :panic:

[Tulip]

A lesson to us all indeed! Ivy has not come across this in 32 years, I love this site and members for bringing up such problems it suddenly makes all these policies etc come alive and make us all aware of problems we simply couldn't imagine/make up! Fore-warned is for-armed
Thanks for your post Ivy :)

[Gogominder]

Omg I'd be pulling my hair out !!

[Maza]

We had a similar incident when I worked in school. A parent gave the teacher a bottle of medicine and the teacher checked the name, but it was at the start of the day and she was dealing with lots of children at the time etc etc. When the TA went to give the child the medicine she noticed that yes, the name on the label was for the correct child, BUT the date was wrong. Turns out the medicine was leftovers from an infection the child had had four months earlier!!

[ivy]

To carry on with this thread today , mother turned up in the setting with no medication . When i asked her about it she said no medicine . Tan a penny bet in 4,5,6 weeks time she will bring in amoxocilin for me to administer to child. Have been in touch with local Health practise and they have advised me not to give medicine if it is more than about 10 days old . Bring it on dear , there's no mug sign written on this forehead .

[jelly jiggles]

OMG! Poor child! Well done you for standing your ground! X

[Carol]

To carry on with this thread today , mother turned up in the setting with no medication . When i asked her about it she said no medicine . Tan a penny bet in 4,5,6 weeks time she will bring in amoxocilin for me to administer to child. Have been in touch with local Health practise and they have advised me not to give medicine if it is more than about 10 days old . Bring it on dear , there's no mug sign written on this forehead .

I have been minding 26 years and never come across that happening before. We'll done for standing up to her. Think a lot of us have learnt something from your experience

[happyfeet2013]

I'm

Now a cm from a nursing background

Any antibiotic use is only for max 10 days it should be disgarded after use

It goes off would smell very bad potentially could make a child very very sick