Many children are diagnosed with ear and throat infections and, if believed to be bacterial in nature, are prescribed antibiotics. The physicians at Kids First Pediatrics would like to reassure you that it is safe to give your child both antibiotics and pain medication together. The antibiotics will help treat the infection while the pain medication will help keep your child comfortable until the infection is under control.

It is also safe (and usually quite effective) to administer single ingredient cough and cold medications (e.g., Delsym, Sudafed, Benadryl) with Acetaminophen (Tylenol) or Ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil). These medications have not been shown to decrease the effectiveness of another when given at the same time. However, please carefully check the label to be certain that the particular cough or cold medication does not also contain Tylenol or Motrin. Should that be the case, please do not give both medicines together.

Recently, there has been a great deal of attention focused on alternating doses of Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen to treat a child’s pain and/or fever (for more information regarding fever, please check out our fever article in the “About Your Child” section of our website, as well as dosing charts for each medication). While there is no absolute consensus regarding the effectiveness of alternating these medicines, it is universally agreed upon that Tylenol and Motrin/Advil must not be given at the same time.

If you have any questions about medication compatibility, please give our office a call at (704) 542-5540 and speak with one of the Kids First Pediatrics nurses.