Dangerous trend
Doctors warn of Paracetamol Challenge on Tiktok
Paracetamol helps many people in the event of illness. But on Tikkok, children are currently challenging themselves to swallow as large amounts of the pain reliever as possible.
This article was first published by RTL.de
Or: Tikkok has continued to become a stalemate of the life -threatening test of courage in recent years. A challenge among parents and doctors is again causing excitement: the paracetamol challenge.
Here, children and teenagers ask each other to swallow paracetamol at once. The videos rarely show how they take the pills. The children usually report from the emergency room where they hang on an infusion hose.
More and more parents and doctors are therefore publicly warning of the dangers of this test of courage. “The population must know that paracetamol are not colorful smarties that you can just throw in. Only because the tablets are freely available are not harmless,” says the doctor Dr. Christoph Specht as early as 2016 in an interview with RTL.
Excessive use of the pain reliever can lead to liver and kidney failure and disturb the cardiovascular system in the long term. In the long term, paracetamol can also be fatal, the pharmaceutical newspaper writes.
How is paracetamol properly dosed?
The problem: The symptoms of paracetamol poisoning are initially somewhat diffuse – for example nausea and vomiting. Only up to 48 hours after ingestion do the first symptoms of liver damage, such as jaundice or consciousness disorders, occur, according to the newspaper. Acetylcysteine is then mostly used as an antidote. The effect of antioxidative and expectorant.
This does not mean that children should not take paracetamol at all. The drug is particularly useful for fever or pain. “The maximum dose of paracetamol per day for the adult is four grams, i.e. 4,000 milligrams, one tablet usually contains 500 milligrams,” said Dr. Woodpecker. So nobody should take more than eight paracetamol tablets a day. And in children, parents should dose even more sensitive.
According to Ratiopharm’s dosage information, the maximum dose of children up to eleven years is two tablets a day, children from eleven to twelve can take up to four tablets and children from twelve finally said eight tablets.
Parents and pharmacies should consider that
And even if paracetamol is freely for sale, Specht recommends not taking it without consulting a doctor. With regard to the Paracetamol Challenge, the pharmacies in turn writes that pharmacists should be particularly attentive if children want to buy the pain reliever. One should always ask what the kids need the tablets for.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
