Who's bright idea was it?

Although after all is said and done, I do understand why these precautions had to be made, but I am frustrated with the fact that "they" pulled infant tylenol off the shelves.  I realize that there was confusion between the infant concentrated stuff (with a dropper), the infant liquid (with a syringe), and childrens liquid (with a cup)...and that people were giving the wrong dosages not realizing that some of those options are more or less concentrated than the next.  I can't tell you how much childrens tylenol I have used in my 11 years of parenting, and I STILL have to check the label to be sure I'm giving the correct amount.  I've never gotten to the point where I just remember.  Unfortunately, there are people who think they DO remember and have been overdosing, not realizing which concentrate they have.

So, with that issue, they are trying to minimize confusion by taking the infant stuff completely off the shelves.  The only problem with this, is that there are still times when an infant is in need of some pain relief.  Teething comes to mind first, shots all also come to mind and as of the last day or so, a general fever associated with a croupy baby.  I would love to have a little dropper of tylenol so that I can quickly give him a little relief, but that just can't happen because it doesn't exist!

Instead, I am found trying to scour the internet for proper dosage charts for the childrens tylenol that I DO have in the cabinet while I'm sleep deprived at 3 am,  holding a crying baby that sounds like a barking seal and is having trouble catching his breath...without my contacts in.  I am relatively educated and can manage simple math....but I'm pretty sure that even a physics major given this same scenario might find themselves a little overwhelmed and frustrated!  In my personal opinion, it seems that by taking the infant stuff off the shelves...the kind that has the dosage written on it and the measuring dropper attached to the cap...might cause even more of an issue with giving the wrong dosage!  If there are parents out there who can't get the dose correct when it is so plainly written out for them, what makes people think that they are going to do the math correctly in a situation similar to what I explained above?

I did, however, find some great information that now (the next day, with a little sleep under my belt and a sleeping baby in my lap) makes much more sense as I read it.  I know...it's really not THAT complicated...but still.  I figured I would share the dosage charts that I found for both acetaminophen and ibuprofen.  Those charts can be found if you click the following links...

Tylenol

Ibuprofen

It also looks like they are trying to remedy this confusion and are going to release a new version of infant Tylenol eventually...there is a great article about how to know the difference between the two....

How to recognize and use old and new infant tylenol.

Maybe this issue isn't an issue for anyone else and maybe I'm just over-reacting...but when you're dealing with a baby who looks like this:

you might be a little overwhelmed too!