Thursday's news was Montana, but a day care provider in Florida was found guilty of causing the death of a 3-1/2 month old girl by giving her Benadryl last September. And CBS reported there were at least 10 other cases of day care workers allegedly sedating children with cold medicines and cough syrups since 2000. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/02/earlyshow/health/health_news/main571181.shtml I did a search on Google Groups and it seems use of Benadryl by parents to induce sleep is a common subject of discussion (see below). Curious: does anyone on the list caution parents about the use of Benadryl? Or is the assumption that this is too uncommon to require caution? George >>>>> Montana Woman Pleads Guilty in Baby's Death BILLINGS, Mont. (Aug. 11) - A day care owner who gave a 1-year-old boy an overdose of allergy medicine pleaded guilty to negligent homicide. Prosecutors said Sabine Bieber gave Benadryl to children at the Tiny Tots Day Care to put them to sleep. The medicine killed Dane Jordan Heggem in January 2003, and Bieber also pleaded guilty to criminal endangerment for giving three other children the medicine. Prosecutors said they would recommend that Bieber receive a 20-year sentence with 15 suspended for negligent homicide and a 10-year sentence with five suspended for criminal endangerment, with the sentences running concurrently. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dismissed three felony charges - two counts of criminal endangerment and one count of tampering with evidence. Bieber is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 29 and remains free on bond until then. Dane's father, Travis Heggem, said it was comforting to hear Bieber admit guilt for his son's death, but the family would like a guarantee that she will face jail time. <<<<<<<< Out of curiosity, went to Google Groups and searched for "Benadryl baby sleep". There are a fair number of hits. On the subject of dosage, came across the following exchange. When apparently intelligent people can have this kind of discussion... "Mary S." wrote in message news:... Don't some people give babies Benedryl before plane flights so > that they'll sleep, or is that an urban legend? Well, it was a popular belief back in the early 70's. When I was 18 months old apparently I wouldn't sleep. (I was an...um....challenging child). My mother had spent months trying to get me to sleep. She finally broke down and called the pediatrician. The pediatrician told her to give me *4* tsp. of Benadryl to make me sleep. Yes, that's right. Four! Well, I slept and I slept extremely hard day and night for a few days then she decided her ped was full of crap and stopped giving it to me. Can you believe that? *FOUR* Teaspoons! ---- "Laurie" wrote in message news:... > >By the way, if it was standard concentration Benadryl (I think it was still > >by prescription only in the early 70s), 4TSP isn't a huge dose -- maybe, > >IIRC, around 25-50 mg, which is a standard dose. So yes, I can believe it! > > > >Bill > > Uhh......standard dose for an adult. Not for an 18 month old, whose average > dose would be 12.5 mg. -------- No. A 50th-percentile 18-month-old is roughly 15-17 kg. The pediatric dose for diphenhydramine (generic for Benadryl) is 1.0-2.0 mg/kg IV, meaning the "average" IV dose for an 18-month-old is anywhere from 15-34mg. Since gastric absorbtion is less efficient and has a slower onset than IV administration (not to mention that parents using the little graduated plastic cups that come with OTC medication bottles are less able to draw up precise dosages), a dose of 25-50mg PO (orally) would certainly not be unusual. More conservative dosing may work, but since 18-month-olds are very unlikely to have ingested alcohol or any other CNS depressants (contraindicated when using higher doses of Benadryl), a slightly higher dose of Benadryl is extremely unlikely to cause any unwanted side effects, but extremely likely to cause the desired effect: sleep. But, of course, you wouldn't want to do this every night -- better to use non-pharmacological methods of sleep modification. Bill ------ The cases of five otherwise healthy infants who died from overdoses of diphenhydramine, one of the ingredients in Benadryl, were detailed in an article published earlier this year in the Journal of Forensic Science. The research began after high levels of the drug were found in a baby who died at a U.S. military base in Virginia in 2001. Everyone who had access to the child has denied giving him the medicine; the case remains under investigation.