Health professionals have called for new guidelines to change pharmacists' attitudes towards recommending analgesics to treat fever in children.

Nice guidelines state that either paracetamol or ibuprofen can be used to treat the condition, but pharmacists should recommend ibuprofen because it was faster-acting and longer-lasting, consultant paediatrician Dipak Kanabar said.

Paracetamol had become "embedded" in people's minds as the "gentler option" because it had been "tried and tested for many years", Dr Kanabar, of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London, said at a Nurofen event on children's fever yesterday (September 30).  

Overdosing on paracetamol was potentially more dangerous than ibuprofen, but this fact was often "brushed aside", he said. There was "a lot of misinformation and myths" about ibuprofen and Nice guidelines gave pharmacists "no indication" which analgesic they should recommend to a family, said Dr Kanabar, who called for further guidelines to be developed.

The primary objective for treating children with fever was to increase their comfort, which could be achieved quicker with ibuprofen, said Dr Kanabar. Recommending alternative doses of the two analgesics would confuse parents and therefore pharmacists should suggest the most effective drug, he argued.

Rowlands pharmacist Ian Ainsworth said new mothers saw pharmacy staff as the "first port of call for advice and treatment". New guidance was needed to "broadcast" that staff did not have to go down the "paracetamol route" just because it was what they were used to, he told C+D at the event.

A survey of 373 UK pharmacy staff commissioned by Nurofen for Children and carried out in May found that 90 per cent thought paracetamol was "gentler" and should be recommended ahead of ibuprofen, the manufacturer said at the event.

Nurofen referred to an independent UK study in 2009 of the effects of paracetamol and ibuprofen on children aged between six months and six years, which found that ibuprofen cleared fevers quicker. Young children with fevers should be treated with ibuprofen first, concluded the study's authors from two Bristol universities.

Last month, pharmacist Terry Maguire advised pharmacists to recommend ibuprofen instead of paracetamol for the treatment of tension headaches.

	What would you recommend to treat fever in children?