What safety measures should you take when your child is using carboplatin?
Your child's doctor will order blood and hearing tests to check for problems while your child is getting carboplatin.
Your child will get some medicine to prevent an upset stomach and throwing up caused by carboplatin.
Your child may lose their hair. It will grow back once treatment with carboplatin stops. Its colour and texture may change. Use a gentle shampoo and a soft brush on your child's hair.
Carboplatin may cause sores in the mouth. Rinse your child's mouth with a mouthwash made from baking soda to help keep it clean. Your nurse or pharmacist can review this with you. Avoid store-bought mouthwash, as it may sting and cause dry mouth.
Carboplatin can lower the number of white blood cells in the blood temporarily, which increases your child's chances of getting an infection. Your child can take the following precautions to prevent infections, especially when the blood count is low:
- Avoid people with infections, such as a cold or the "flu."
- Avoid places that are very crowded with large groups of people.
- Be careful when brushing or flossing your child's teeth. Your doctor, nurse or dentist may suggest different ways to clean your child's mouth and teeth.
- You/your child shouldn't touch your child's eyes or inside their nose without washing you/your child's hands first.
- Your child should not receive a permanent tattoo or any kind of body piercing.
- Your child's nurse and doctor will review with you what to do when you child has a fever.
Carboplatin can lower the number of platelets in the blood, which increases your child's risk of bleeding. You can take the following precautions:
- Be careful not to cut your child when using a razor, fingernail scissors or toenail clippers.
- Be careful when shaving or waxing.
- Your child should avoid contact sports where bruising or injury could occur.
- Before your child has surgery, including dental surgery, or any emergency treatment, inform the doctor or dentist that your child is taking carboplatin.
Your child should not receive any immunizations (vaccines) without your child's doctor's approval. Your child or anyone else in your household should not get oral polio vaccine while your child is being treated for cancer. Tell your child's doctor if anyone in your household has recently received oral polio vaccine. Your child should avoid contact with anyone who has recently received this vaccine. Other live vaccines that your child should not get include measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and chickenpox vaccine.
There is a chance that carboplatin may cause birth defects if it is taken at the time of conception or if it is taken during pregnancy. If your child is sexually active, it is recommended that they use some kind of birth control while receiving carboplatin. Tell the doctor right away if your child may be pregnant.
After receiving carboplatin, your child may not be able to have children or have more difficulty having children. Your child's doctor will discuss this in more detail with you/your child.
Check with your child's doctor or pharmacist before giving your child any other medicines (prescription, non-prescription, herbal or natural products).
