The legal guidance allows you to give over-the-counter medication such as pain and fever relief or teething gel. However, you must get written permission beforehand from parents, and, you must follow the same recording procedures as those for prescribed medication. You must only give medication when asked to do so by a parent and if there is an accepted health reason to do so.
The Statutory Framework recommends that children under 16 should never be given medicines containing aspirin unless a doctor has prescribed that medicine for that child. You should make this clear to parents and take account of this when putting in place your medication policy.
If you already have written permission to give a particular over-the-counter medication to a child, and you need to, you do not have to get written permission every time you give it. However, you may consider it good practice to ask the parent to sign the written record, which you must complete, to confirm that you have told them that you gave the agreed medication. This will allow you to prove you have let parents know that you gave the medication, as shown in the Statutory Framework.
For more information please see the following Ofstead report: Giving_medication_in_childcare_2010_ofsted__tcm3-11353