Toddler with tonsillitis refusing antibiotics

Pen V solution tastes disgusting and has to be given four times a day so I don't know why clinicians prescribe it. Why put a poorly baby through the trauma when there are much better alternatives?

Phone 111 to get an alternative prescribed. Clarithromycin doesn't taste unpleasant and only needs to be given twice a day

My son wants everything I eat and I knew he wouldn't take his antibiotics (ear infection, 15 months old). So I pretended to bring a bowl through of "yoghurt" and eat it, right enough he came over asking for what I had. I did this every day and he took his antibiotics cause he thought he was getting mummy's food.

Would that work?
Otherwise, could you mix it in a yoghurt or a drink?

There are so many single dose per day Antibiotics, why give a 4x a day to a toddler? Ridiculous!

Be careful mixing with drinks in particular as you need to know she has drank it all to actually get the dose and if she realises you could put her off drinking all together.

Personally I always used the tight swaddle, hug and then syringe into the cheek. If she has a dummy all the better because you can give it down the side of that and she sucks automatically. Then big hug afterwards.

I think sometimes rne more fuss we made the more of a battle it becomes

Yes, bacterial tonsillitis can indeed infect heart valves (happened to my mother). When DD was younger and she refused her antibiotics, I used to syringe them into her cheek very gradually while my husband cradled her on his lap. She actually started to accept them after a while and is now totally fine having them. We only had banana flavoured amoxicillin prescribed though. It smelled quite nice to me actually!

We stirred it into her favourite yoghurt when dd was 2.

At time when my children were babies I had to pin them down and squirt the medicine In their mouth and close the mouth until swallowed. Unfortunately for an infection they have no choice. It's hard I had to be admitted to hospital when my DD was 11 months we stayed their 2 days longer than we should so they could be sure I had the confidence to administer the antibiotics for a severe chest infection.

A small bowl of any strong /sweet tasting food she will eat herself. Preferably not the same thing every time or she will get suspicious or sick of it. A spoonful, is more dose accurate, but might not be enough to disguise taste - worth a try first. Does she like the fruity pots? Or foods with a sauce? You could even squirt into jam and spread it, if she likes jam. Clean bowl and this favourite treat is yours. Any approach has its hazards unfortunately. It's forcing v dishonesty, if things like role play, silly games don't work. I strongly believe in playing doctors and nurses and dentists from really early age, to prepare for any situation, including medicines, injections, stethoscopes and having ears and eyes looked at and temp taken. Might help for future events. Don't worry about sugar/healthiness/teeth - needs must,as short term solution.

Squirt such small amounts at a time that she can't spit them out. Chocolate afterwards or some other treat if you don't give her chocolate. If she's been given a 10 day course it's presumably quite bad, please ignore all the PPs telling you to ignore the GP and not give the antibiotics.

You do have my sympathies though. We struggled enough with amoxicillin, but penicillin is particularly disgusting.

Familiar not family!

Hide it in a spoonful of jam (my DS was able to spit it out even if we squirted it into his cheek, and didn't understand bribery).

We have a slightly younger toddler but have been through all the nursery illnesses some requiring ABs

We now add it to a couple teaspoons of ice cream, in a bowl that is family and fed with a normal spoon as our DS kept refusing anything vaguely associated with 'medicine'. We figured a few teaspoons a day of ice cream was worth a stress free administer of drugs!

Pen V is notoriously vile, so much so that they’ve reduced prescribing it to children now because so many parents struggle with it. I could get it into my child because he had previously had a quinsy/sepsis (similar age to your child actually) and I could threaten ‘hand medicine’. But the antimicrobial guidelines now suggest amoxicillin for this reason.

There are always tons of posters on here saying antibiotics don’t shorten the illness - I’m very pro antibiotics for tonsillitis, based on my experience with my child (two hospital admissions for IV antibiotics for this very reason), and my own experience as a lifelong tonsillitis sufferer. It’s the difference between being unable to move and back to fully functioning albeit not 100% recovered in 24 hours in my experience.

I even have emergency abx in the cupboard because I get so unwell. I saw an ENT about removal a few years ago and he had some horror stories about the severe cases he sees, including sepsis in otherwise healthy people.

Best tip I ever read on here is to blow fairly hard on their face as soon as you squirt the medicine in. It stimulates a swallow reflex and stops them from spitting them out.

My 2 year old has had recurrent tonsillitis. The antibiotics they prescribe are disgusting so either ask for a better tasting alternative or as another poster has said they have been shown to only reduce the time by 24-48 hours.

Chocolatés, buttons, small blob of ice cream afterwards for swallowing the medicine? It’s a situation where bribery is required!
If really still no joy, ask the pharmacy to swap.

You must get it into her. Bacterial tonsillitis can attack the heart valves if you dont treat it.

You can ask the chemist to remake it with a different flavour

You can try hiding it better in something strongly flavoured

You cam try bribing

You can pin her down…. Sit on the floor with her lying between your legs facing away. Put one of your legs over each shoulder and leg..this will oin her head between your thighs. Then slowly dribble it into the back of her cheek with a syringe. Dont squirt it quickly, it hurts. Be very calm but firm.

I found that after I pinned mine a couple of times, they would accept taking it normally, particularly if I allowed them to squirt it into their own mouths

I was a nightmare as a child my dad used to hide it in honey or golden syrup. As they are very strong sugary flavour it really helped. Also a drink fir right after she has taken them. I'm older with my own kids now so feel bad for screaming at my dad terrified as I couldn't swallow tablets. But hes helped so much as now I can do with my son.

Mix it with undiluted cordial. Nurse did that with some hideous steroids DS had to take when he was tiny.

It reasonable to ask for an alternative from the out of hours team. Penicillin is notoriously vile.

There's a section on taking medicines in 'How to talk so little kids will listen'. Is she verbal enough to problem solve? So, acknowledge feelings- 'I know, it tastes awful and you really don't like having it in your mouth!' (Say it like you feel disgusted by it too). 'The problem is, we have to get this medicine inside your body to make you better and stop the pain in your throat coming back again. What could we do?' Come up with ideas together, pick one together and try that? She might want to watch a particular TV show while she does it, or hold her nose to swallow, or have a chocolate before and after?

When all else fails, it's time to, 'take action without insult'. So basically tell her you're going to give her the medicine, that you know she doesn't like it but her body needs the medicine. Then cradle in your lap, pinning one arm between you and her body and the other arm with yours, take aim at the back of the cheek and go for it. Good luck!

I used to mix liquid antibiotics into chocolate milk and tablets would be crushed and mixed with Nutella.