sugary medicine FTW

good morning, dear reader.

well, actually, it's not that good for me, as i have been awake fro the last hour and a half with period cramps.  it's 4:45 am. *sigh* it's a pattern i follow.  at least i only get them on the first night.  and i have to get up, rather than languishing in bed so i don't wake poor hubby with my tossing and turning and groaning.

so i get up for an hour or so.  the way to beat them, i find, is a hot water bottle and Calpol.  tea and cigarettes, of course, go without saying.

Calpol, if you are not a Brit, dear reader, is a paracetamol medicine for children.  i tend to take painkillers only at this time, or if i have a headache that can't be vanquished by any other means, or if my back is playing up (not too often these days, thank the gods!)  now, then.  let me tell you about Calpol, as it's sort of what this post is about.

people often laugh at me when i tell them i take calpol.  or, indeed, if they see me swigging it from the bottle (can't be bothered with a spoon - too sticky, and i always make a mess).  it is, after all, something that is ubiquitous in this country for teething and feverish babies and young children.  i was given it as a child for headaches, stomach aches, or when i had a cold.  and, well, it seemed like a treat amongst the misery.  it's this sticky, viscous, sugary, violently pink liquid that tastes and smells exactly the same as Red Bull (weird).  the reason i take it is that it is liquid and therefore works (i find) faster and better than tablets. plus, hey - it tastes nice, and gives me comforting childhood thoughts of being looked after by my mum.

well, i said sugary, but there is the heart of my annoyance.  see, with all of this panic/concern/whatever about what we are feeding our children rotting their teeth, etc etc (with reason in many cases, to be fair), the stuff you used to get (with the sugar in it) is getting harder and harder to find.  this makes me sad, disappointed, and actually quite cross.  see, the sugar free stuff is all very well, but of course, you have to sweeten it somehow, as pracetamol is a very bitter drug. and, childrens' taste sense being what it is (i.e. tuned to detect bitterness, as that often denotes poison), it would be hard, if not impossible to get them to take it. 

this leaves artificial "sweeteners". 

these, dear reader (as far as i and, i'm sure, many others are concerned), are the devil's own concoction.  i have yet to find an artificial sweetener that didn't taste worse than the bloody paracetamol itself.  and yet, in our concern for our childrens' teeth, we are trying to fool them into accepting this substitute which tastes sweet enough just long enough to get the blasted stuff down, then leaves an effin' 'ORRIBLE taste in the mouth for aaaaages afterwards.  i mean, come on!  the poor little bugger is in enough misery already, without giving them this pseudo-sweet shit with a vile afertaste as well!  it's just cruel!  for gods' sake, how often do you give the kids Calpol, anyway?  it's not like you're spooning it into them all day, every day, is it?! (i bloody well hope not, anyway!)  so for christ's sake, give the poor little buggers some sugar once in a while, give 'em a little treat, a little pleasure amongst the pain.

seriously - it ain't gonna hurt them.