Tom and I have gone the route of writing down the time each medicine is given throughout the day, but that's too much like a hospital and we don't need to keep an in-depth medical chart each time a kid has the flu.
We don't want to put them all on a schedule of medicines, because they're each in a different stage of the flu, and while one might need more pain relief, the other might need it less frequently. But we do want to make sure that each child remains comfortable and doesn't get an overdose...which can be hard to do when you can't remember who had what medicine at what time!
So our solution is indeed to write it down, but in a format that's easy to find, doesn't take up a ton of space, and we can each know what medicine to give the next child who wakes up crying in the middle of the night. Usually I'm the one getting up with the sick kid, but once in a while Tom is up before I am, so I let him take care of it and he knows which medicine to give next.
Here's our solution. We create a grid on the white board with the initial of each child across the top, and each possible medicine along the left side. Then we write in the time we give each medicine. If you can't remember the dosage between each child, you could also write the dosage in the box. We usually alternate between Tylenol and Motrin for pain and fever relief, so we can anticipate when the last dose is wearing off and know which medicine to give next. Then we wipe out the previous time and write down the new time.
This system works for us. For more brilliant ideas from other bloggers on the planet, visit Shannon's site.
3 comments:
I'm a nurse and I don't even use a system such as this at my house. We just run around and holler "what time did you give **** his tylenol?". LOLOL
Very good idea!! Thanks for sharing.
I do almost the same thing, except I write on the bathroom mirror because the kid medicine is all in the bathroom. I do kid names and the medicines, like you do, but instead of doing the time GIVEN, I write down the time that they are due for their next dose. That way I'm not trying to do math at 1AM, and if hubby is up with the other child during the night, he can tell at a glance if it's okay to give more Motrin, etc.
The dry-erase pen in the bathroom is also handy for reminder notes (buy more bath salt!) that you can never seem to remember long enough to walk to the kitchen and write it down on the shopping list. :-)
Brilliant!!!
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