If you are like me, you most likely remember your childhood illnesses and the medicines you took to treat them. One of the first things that you can find daunting as a non-french parent in France is how to describe your childs illness and how do you know what to give them?
This thread is intended not as a diagnosis tool (your Medecin is the recommended route for diagnosing all illnesses) but for us to share the English/French terminology specifically relating to childhood illnesses.
The first medecine I searched for was Calpol (good old trusty pink paracetamol) I asked the Dr and was prescribed Doliprane (not pink syrup but suppositories). The next time I asked for the sirop and was pleased to discover it does exist and it's just like Calpol. Suppositories seem to be heavily favoured in France & perhaps are useful for very little ones who have an inbuilt reaction to spit out medecine but for older children I've found the sirop goes down well without a spoon full of sugar.
Something to watchout for with little ones is the replacement of 'brand' medicine with generics, as a rule I am always happy to take the generic and save the state a few pennies, however, with the antibiotics for little ones, generally the taste is not as nice.
The other thing to note is that most antibiotics need to be given 3 times a day, which is difficult if your child is at school or daycare - Orelox only needs to be given twice a day, so it means after the first couple of days and your little is feeling better, they can go back to school/daycare etc and continue the course of antibiotics - and as a working mum, I can go back to work!
With regards to the suppos, I wish they would invent antibiotics in suppo form, it sure beats chasing kids round the kitchen and forcing their mouth open to swallow nasty medicine! My 2 were born here and drop their pants automatically when we mention medicine, however it remains strictly my job, there are some things that Daddy absolutely REFUSES to do! LOL
yep, I bought an electronic ear thermometer (same model our Medecin uses). The hospital maternity staff were not amused that I proposed to use this on a 1 day old baby. Well I don't like the idea of sticking a stick up their bottom, I'm English & squeemish.