Tricks to get 8 month old to take horrible antibiotic!!!!

[2point4pets]

Hi
My DD (8months) has a perforated ear drum & consequent infection, diagnosed yesterday by GP. She is actually quite happy, although more clingy than usual, but the really big problem is getting the medicine down her. It is helpfully 'banana' flavoured. She hates it. Now she is crying and pursing her lips really badly when we approach with the syringe. I took a colleague's advice this arvo and force fed it to her - she was very upset at this approach and threw it all up plus lunch 1 minute later.
I rang the pharmacist who says we can dilute it, but with what? She isn't drinking juice yet. She is still breastfeeding, and normally loves her food, although she has been off it today, probably due to the infection.
Can anyone contribute tips on getting her to take this medicine? Can I ask for an alternative? She loves the taste of calpol!
Please help! any advice appreciated.

[KnickersandVests]

You could hide it in a yoghurt. Is she eating yoghurt? I can remember doing this for my DD when she refused medicine.

Just make sure the medicine is not affected by dairy.

HTH

[sallyk]

Depends on what type of Ab it is. But my daughter was also a nightmare at taking what was I seem to remember banana flavour amoxycillin I think. I went back and got same medicine in a sort of drops/concentrated version which just meant a small dropper full on the tongue. Which she still didn't like but was deffo an improvement. If not as above yoghurt!!

[onetiredmummy]

Is she already having Calpol for the pain? If so you could ask the pharmacist if you can mix the ab into the calpol?

[alypaly]

what antibiotic is it and then i can tell you if there are different flavours

[2point4pets]

HI there
it is banana flavoured amoxycillin! foul stuff. 4mls, which is quite a lot if you hate it.
The yoghurt idea is a good one, fingers crossed she is feeling like eating again today. A concentrate would be preferable.
I did ring the pharmacy, they said it could be diluted as long as she gets the 4 mls - my worry is that I will dilute it and she will refuse the whole lot!

[ben5]

syringe it into the side of her mouth , by her cheek. we 've had loads of different flavoued and coloured ab. one of my ds2 current ab is blood red and makes his wee orange!!! there is no easy way!! can you bf straight after. try mixing with a little of fav food.

[BellaBear]

second mixing it with yoghurt, worked well for us when DS was that old and had the same medicine. After an operation when DS was 18mo (and I appreciate that is significantly older than your LO) we mixed his medicines with chocolate mousse for a week.

[MrsBadger]

we tried all the tricks - mixed with juice, yoghurt, you name it
she wasn't having any of it - never got on with calpol either

only thing that worked at this age was to pinion her in my arms (like swaddling a newborn), get dh to do the syringing and then put her straight on the breast to take away the taste.

these days we bribe with a biscuit afterwards

[alypaly]

you can get branded Amoxil Paediatric suspension,which can be peach,strawberry or lemon flavoured. The amount you get given is 20 mls but because it is in a more concentrated form you only have to give up to 1.25mls. See of doc will change it 4 u and then you dont have to get the 4mls(or did you mean 5mls) down them.

[2point4pets]

Yoghurt worked, then she threw the whole lot up, so back to GP now to see what they suggest as I am starting to worry about dehydration now, as well as the fact that she hasn't actually been able to keep any of the banana stuff down.
thanks for all of your suggestions, I will ask the GP about the amoxil suspension, seems like a good idea.

[alypaly]

ask for Amoxil paediatric in 20ml bottle. It comes with a dropper that measures 1,25mls, not just amoxil as amoxil is for adults.
Sounds as tho she needs dioralyte too.

[2point4pets]

it worked! thanks alypaly - my gp had a good look in the book and found it, although it took 2 pharmacies to find it in stock. the first one basically told me it didn't exist, but i insisted they check. pharmacist conceded defeat, but said she could't remember the last time she dispensed it. lucky secong pharmacy had it. DD took it - can't say she loved it, but it went down no problem. Thanks all, mumsnet saves the day!

[alypaly]

so much for doctors....sometimes i loose a bit of confidence in them as they seem to forget alot of whet they learnt. Glad they changed it for you. Does it still come with the dropper as i havent dispensed it for ages?
What flavour did you manage to get? I am amazed that u managed to find a pharmacy with it??? normally they would have to order it in for the next day...you were lucky.

[2point4pets]

yes, has a dropper for 1.25ml - the flavours are actually lemon, strawberry and peach mixed (tropical?!) and to me it smells of banana, but to baby, it is tropical, so that is what counts! thanks again!
Yes, lucky pharmacy too, whew!

[nappyaddict]

Mix it into yoghurt, juice, milkshake, jam, milk, hot chocolate, chocolate spread etc?

Bribe with chocolate after to take the taste away? Obviously with a younger baby you don't say if you have this medicine you can have some chocolate after. You get the medicine in whatever way you can and then give them the chocolate button after. It doesn't take long for them to realise if they comply it's an easy way of getting chocolate

Let her help do it herself?

Role play with teddy/dolly first?

I know someone who puts a chocolate button on top of the medicine on the spoon, and one in her dd's mouth. The idea was she would take the medicine and not want to spit it out because of not wanting to spit out the chocolate.