experienced medicine givers.....help please!!!!

[Jaynee]

Hi everyone. Dd is 2 and 9 months and for about 18 months giving medicine has been a huge issue. Started after a series of things ( ear infection, urine infection and chickenpox)I cannot even get calpol or nurofen into her. With a spoon it's a battle which ends with medicine everywhere and her screaming and when I try and force her she vomits straight away ( which she can do on demand!) This week she has had tonsilitus and i've been unable to give her the antibiotics, doctor and h.visitor unhelpful and have just said she'll have to put up with it then!! Any helpful hints or ideas please...desperate. (Oh, but she doesn't mind suppositries and actually laughs....weird!)

[Donk]

Dosing syringe? (75p IIRC from pharmacy)
Or try a different brand/flavour?
Our DS refused resolutely to have strawberry flavoured antibiotics, but tolerated lemon.
He hates calpol and nurofen - but loves the Lloyds pharmacy own brand versions (I have to hide the bottle!)
Other than that, I don't know - our GP thought we were terrible wimps for failing to get the strawberry flavoured antibiotics down DS's throat - he fortunately recovered without them.

[meandmyjoe]

Have you tried meauring it out in to a cup, maybe even add a little water, then just let her drink it like that. My ds refuses any medicine off a spoon and hates the syringe but just thinks I'm giving him a drink if I give it in a cup. He is only 15 months though so is easily fooled, maybe your dd would be on to you! Worth a go though.

[sparkle12mar08]

I have a friend whose son will not take medicines, and even when held down and his nose pinched to open his mouth, would then vomit them back 'on demand' as you say. He desperately needed to take his medication so they were advised to put it in his favourite drink and get him to drink more than half of it in a go, if possible, the rest over the next hour or so. This worked a treat for them.

You could also try stirring it into yoghurt, a homemade smoothie, cup of milk, anything that you know she'll take. But do not under any circumstances refer to it as a 'special' thing - she'll twig that it's medicine

[mrsmcdreamy]

My 15 month old is the same, and luckily he hasn't worked out the post-pin-down-syringe in back of mouth-hold mouth open till he swallows-vomiting yet, but I'm sure that will come soon enough.

If I don't want to go through the trauma of above then I give it to him in a drink of milk (enough to dilute any medicinal-tang), although I'm always a little concerned anout not knowing exactly how much he gets...

Found the whole phobia quite puzzling as DS1 would quaff any medicine like it was a special treat!!

[vannah]

hi jaynee,
i had a huge problem similar to this when my son was the same age. I ran a search on mumsnet, there are so many posts like this - its worth spending some time reading through as there are lots of tips to try out.

WE tried lots of suggestions, but in the end, only one thing worked - something I made up. At the time he was obsessed with Maisy. Watched various videos all day, read books.
so we (dh and i)spent about 4 hours one night making him a maisy book about maisy being very ill and then maisy having the yucky medicine but quickly having a chocolate afterwards etc
Its the only thing that worked. He took the medicine. Worth a try with favourite character
good luck

[Nyx]

Hey, well done with the book vannah, you must have been over the moon when it worked!

to the OP, I had that problem as well when dd was younger, it's very worrying isn't it. I just went for straight bribery...getting to lick sugar from a spoon straight afterwards is what she likes now. Good luck!

[Yanda]

Agree with Vannah that getting a favourite character in on the act can be great, my DD always takes medicine from Dr Pingu!

[jollyholly]

Jaynee, your dd is probably too young for this but just in case this gets read by someone with a slightly older dc - my dd1 could take tablets from 4. (Admittedly we had a battle with pharmacists saying the prescription was wrong as it was for tablets not medicine, people just assume that they can't take tablets just because they're little)

[Sugarmagnolia]

Jaynee - I know this suggestion will probably be met with horror but if it's really important to get the medicine into her you might want to consider it.

DD was never good about taking medicine. When she was a toddler we used to have to hold her down and force it with a syringe but by the time she was 4 or so that was impossible (and I guess pointless if you have a child who's just going to bring it back up!). So eventually, when it was something important like Antibiotics, I used to mix it with a big spoonful of chocolate ice cream. And yes, I did this 4 times a day when necessary. but it worked.

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

Use a slim syringe and slip it into the side of your lo's mouth ie aim it into the cheek, not the tongue. Also use the heel of your hand on the plunger so you can control the speed the medicine goes in.

My friend uses the crucifix position to hold down her lo. She wrestles him to the floor so he's laying on his back with his arms out either side of him. She then puts her legs (she's also sitting on the floor) over his arms. It's not as brutal as it sounds, and more importantly it works!

[Mungarra]

Will she put the syringe in herself? My DS2 used to make a huge fuss until we let him do it himself.

[Sophiale01]

Blackmail i.e. 'if you dont take your medicine, then your favourite toy goes away.' probably not the best tactic in the world but it works in this house. when DD was younger and didnt like the taste, I used to mix it in yoghurt or something else cold to disguise the taste but now shes older blackmail works much better!

[Elk]

I always use a medicine syringe and rapidly follow with a chocolate button.

I must admit though that ab's are about the hardest things to get into my dd's, even eye drops are easier!

[insywinsyspider]

hello,
reviving this thread because I'm having this problem at the moment.
the antibiotics say 'give an hour before food or on an empty stomach' so far we've had 3 goes at it and managed to get half of his 5 ml dose in each time, he loves smoothies so will try that later but will have food with it make it less affective??

[TheGashlycrumbTinies]

We have a bit of a tussle with DD2, so we pin her down, use a syringe and let her have 3 chocolate raisins after.

A spoonful of sugar...

[insywinsyspider]

tried offering chocolate as a bribe, he's not interested, would rather not have medicine and if we pin him down he splits it out, hence in food would be good but guidelines on bottle say not to but is it more important that he takes something?

[mejon]

insywinsyspider - those instructions sound familiar - is it Flucloxacillin or something similar? It has to be the most offensive tasting medicine ever. DD had to take some back in the summer and I don't think she ever got a full dose after the first spoonfull. She was too young for reasoning with/bribery. In the end, the only way I could do it was to wrap her in a towel then slowly syringe a bit in, hold her mouth shut and quickly blow on her face. Utterly horrible thing to do but we couldn't do it any other way. I tried it in juice/squash but it still tasted horrible.

Does your DS normally take medicine well? If so, it may be worth seeing if your GP can give you an alternative antibiotic with a more palatable taste?

[insywinsyspider]

he does normally take medicine really well, has had to take moxicillin before when about 16 months and did no problem, and laps up capol, medised etc, only got this stuff yesterday not sure what its called, I think it tastes ok - kind of like orange jelly but he really objects - he's 2.5yrs now and really strong willed, I get first half in ok because he is happy to take medicine and then he realises and clamps his mouth shut. Didn't try blowing on his face nurse said yesterday this particular antibiotic is a love it or hate it taste for kids - if I struggle today I will have to take him back I think....

[Smee]

have you tried doing it as she sleeps? Might sound weird, but in desperation that's what we did. Use a syringe, put it in slowly via the corner of the mouth and only when you're sure they're deeply asleep. Mostly worked for us.

[PlumBumMum]

My dd is 2.2 and we all have to pretend to have a fight over who wants the medicine this might only work because of the two older siblings, she thinks shes going to miss out

[stealthsquiggle]

It's much harder for them to spit out (and they don't taste it as much) with a dosing syringe - I use the 'stick' ones which come with Nurofen for everything - pin them down and put it into the back of their cheek IYSWIM. I know this sounds mean and nasty beyond belief, but it helps if they are screaming as they can't help but swallow. Also having chocolate (or other appropriate bribe) right there where they can see it and get it nanoseconds after they have swallowed helps them forget (even more) quickly.

With Paracetemol and Ibuprofen definitely try different brands/flavours - DS resolutely refuses to take anything strawberry flavoured but is fine with orange - DNiece is the opposite.

[insywinsyspider]

i'm def doing something wrong then, I'm using the nurofen syringe, I'm pinning him down (yes its horrible ) and he clamps his mouth shut, when he shouts I try and get some in but if its anywhere but right down his throat (very diff only managed about 2ml down today) then he spits it out again
I might just try in a smoothie.... already tired and stressed (got ds2 12months and 19 wks pg - it sounds lame but I just can't be doing with the battle)

[stealthsquiggle]

Go for the smooothie, definitely. At that age DS would only drink water so I didn't have that option!