My daughter is a regular user of Advil and Tylenol to keep her fevers down. If she doesn’t use them she has febrile seizures. Using them so much has taught me a lot about how they work, and which one is actually better. I will compare the two in this article.
Price: I just wanted to get this comparison out of the way. I have to include it because a lot of people want to buy the cheaper product. For a standard child’s 4 fl oz liquid suspension you can expect to pay $5.89 for Advil. Children’s Tylenol suspension liquid costs $5.99 for a 4 fl oz bottle. Not much difference in price. Advil leads by $.10.
Variety: Kids don’t always like the taste of their medicine so I thought I should include what flavors are available in each brand. Advil comes in 3 basic flavors. These flavors include blue raspberry, grape, and fruit flavors. My kids hated the blue raspberry flavor, and prefer the cherry. The blue raspberry also stained my daughter’s shirt terribly. I couldn’t get the stain out either. Each child will have his or her own preference, however, so your child may love the blue raspberry (although you won’t if you spill it). Tylenol comes in 4 flavors: Cherry blast, bubble gum, grape splash, and very berry strawberry. My kids love the bubble gum flavor. As a matter of fact, I don’t know any kid who turns down the bubble gum flavor.
Advil also offers choices between suspension liquid, children’s chewables, and children’s junior strength swallowable tablets. Tylenol gives you the choice of suspension liquid, children’s meltaways, and junior meltaways. There are currently no swallowable tablets available for juniors. Of course both companies offer drops for infants.
Effectiveness: Children’s Tylenol can be given every 4 hours and says it lasts up to 4 hours. Advil lasts twice as long as Tylenol coming in at every 8 hours. Like I said in the beginning of this article, I have given both of these to my daughter more times than I can count. Advil is the first medication I give my daughter when she has a fever. That is because it begins working twice as fast as Tylenol and brings down my daughters fevers better than Tylenol. So why do I use Tylenol at all? Well my doctor knew how important it was to keep my daughters fever as low as possible during her illnesses because of her risk for febrile seizures. It turns out that you can give Advil, and then 2 hours later give Tylenol. Using both medications on top of each other became a way of life for my daughter and me. Of course I would never recommend you do that unless instructed to by your doctor like I was.
From experience, when I would give my daughter Tylenol first, she would more often have a seizure. I had to bring down the fever as fast as possible and the only way to do that is with the Advil. Tylenol was just a way to get 2 pain relievers in my daughter at once. This also never gave the pain reliever a chance to wear off and let the fever spike back up again.
Special Offers: Both websites offer a $1 off coupon. I once wrote to both companies and told them about my daughter. I thought I was going to go broke paying for these medications. Both companies were gracious and sent me 10 $1 off coupons. So if you find yourself in a similar position as myself don’t hesitate to contact each company. To contact Advil call 1-800-88-Advil. To contact Tylenol call 1-800-962-5357.
