To force him to take it?

[poorlykid]

My 3.5 year old needs a course of penicillin. He had one this afternoon and it tasted bad and now is in melt down refusing to have the next lot!
I've got to give him it 4 times a day for 10 days!
I really really don't want to force him to take it but how am I supposed to get him to take it?! Any ideas? Help!

It didn't work for the bloody awful Piriton syrup she has to take twice a day now for the foreseeable, that she will only take mixed with hot chocolate.

As someone who had some recently, branded Piriton really isn't too bad - just very minty.

It's so horrible isn't it? My son (who has just turned 2) can't even take Calpol 'straight'! I remember trying to force it down him a couple of times in the past but it make him sick straight away and I felt so guilty! Once, it made me feel so bad I cried and couldn't stop all evening! (I was pregnant at the time)... :( Luckily though, mixing it in with yoghurt seems to work. I hope it's the same if I need to give him antibiotics!

The Orange one is awful my DS had scarlet fever before Christmas and despite been used to taking meds daily declared it disgusting and didn't want to take it again. The syringe method worked and after a few doses took it happily from a spoon.

My 4 year old DD just had scarlet fever and, even though she's usually really good at taking medicine, she totally refused this one (think it's the same as yours). To be fair to her, she was feeling utterly shit and was therefore being totally unreasonable!!

I ended up bribing her with a Build a bear if she finished the course... Bloody expensive but it worked.

If you need the sugar-based one, you'll have to get a new prescription from your GP. The pharmacy can't redispense from the old prescription.

My 1 year old has just had a course of antibiotics that she hated. As much as it pained me to do it the only way was to give her teeny tiny bits of kinder chocolate after syringing in 1-2mls at a time. Needs must sometimes as she had a nasty chest infection.

After she tasted the first spoonful it took two days to get dd, 3, to take hers. Promises of nice thins after, telling her how important it is, explaining the she will have to take it and the next day we would be holding her down. She is absolutely fine with it two days in. A cold drink straight after and something nice, we have gone with Smarties or Haribo. Talk up how much better they are looking and that it must be the medicine. I think it tastes vile, I admire her for taking it!

We mixed it with um bongo and told dd that if she drank her magic juice she didn't have to take her medicine.

Tangtastic worked for us. DS1 has had ABs quite a few times. I think the sour full on flavour of fizzy sweets worked. He has one before and one after. Have only ever bought them when he needed medicine so they hold some allure.

The orange stuff is foul.

School don't allow sweets so I leave a drink bottle of really strong blackcurrant squash with the medicine and he has a big gulp of that.

I was pinned down, arms clamped, nose pinched for medicine as a kid and as an adult had a real issue swallowing medicine or tablets. Always made me vomit immediately. I know that won't be the case for most people but I am so glad I haven't had to do it. Have never felt guilt over the sweets.

Thank-you everyone! I'm not sure Pepsi would have even occurred to me if someone hadn't mentioned it! I really hope we don't have this debacle every time! 😬 🤞🏻

DD (almost 4) has just had chickenpox. The only way I could get the Piriton syrup into her was by using an old Calpol syringe and with copious administration of Haribo and Smarties.

On one occasion she did completely refuse to take it so I’m afraid I had to be a hard-ass about it and I squirted it into the back of her throat while she was screaming and crying at me.

Mixed the dirty medicine into little lemonade. Poor kid. It worked though

what is the (list of)possible results if he doesnt take it?. ..are you good with that?

Tjr171, yes indeed, why can't we get kids' medicine in suppository firm? None of this trouble in France...

So BeesAndChiscuits you are saying what? You’d rather see your DC deteriorate to the point they have to be admitted so they can have IV antibiotics than make taking them at home non-negotiable? Is a very poorly child and the cost to the NHS a fair trade off to you not being prepared to be firm?

There are antibiotics and then there is the one that no adult would ever take unless it were in a tablet form. When my son, at a young age, was prescribed that one we tried and tried to disguise it and in the end went back and begged for tablets, which he took with no problem whatsoever.

I have sometimes coated a dessert spoon in apple sauce/compote, carefully added the medicine in the middle (easy when it's a powder, fiddly if a liquid) then covered the medicine over with more apple compote. Then get the child to gulp it down without chewing it and the medicine will not touch their throat.

I practised with a spoonful of plain apple first.

If you taste it yourself you'll see it is HORRIBLE and so bitter. especially the Cefpodoxime (=orelox) although Amoxycillin doesn't taste too bad to me. People have different reactions to bitter tastes, some don't taste it, other people including me find it unbearable.

Can you teach them the ‘hold your nose and swallow’ trick then get a couple of chocolate buttons in there?

There is no need for them to taste it!

Last time my daughter had nasty antibiotics, we put them in a yogurt drink. We don't normally buy those, so it was a treat, and they were thick enough and had enough flavor to disguise the medicine.

The hold your nose thing is real. If you cant use your sense of smell, your sense of taste is hugely reduced. I had some battles that I won by getting them to hold their nose and close their eyes. Then some battles that I had to pin them down for - usually only once or twice though as after being pinned we usually both agreed that we preferred if said child held their own nose and closed their own eyes and I squirted the medicine followed by a treat of their choice.

For a baby, squirting in the cheek is the best way to stop them spittting it back out and syringes instead of spoons every time

Bribery! It's the only way...

P.S. I sympathise with the poor lad (as well as you). I had to have liquid penicillin last summer and my goodness it was disgusting.

The routine with my children (and the Brownies when on sleepover) was always,
hold your nose,
swallow fast and
yell THAT WAS HORRIBLE! followed by a sweet if needed.
Making it into a ritual seemed to help.

Please don't force when there's other options! Get the dr to write a prescription for a less foul tasting version of ABX. There's so many different versions and some come with fruit flavours and sugar that aren't as bad.

DS is currently on penicillin (after 3 different prescriptions that we couldn't get in). It's phenoxymethyl cherry flavoured with sugar. It tastes as good as calpol.

When I had pneumonia as a child, the penicilin was injected into bum cheek, and as it hurt, I was bribed a shilling every time (5p, but it was double my pocket-money).

The dogs, however, had expensive injections from the vet, as they said most owners had problems getting them to take medecin - this owner preferred to hide a (much cheaper) tablet in either butter or cheese.

It does seem odd that so many children (and mums) are having to suffer such unpleasant remedies so many years after I did, and if it's available in a sweetened version, I'm surprised this is not usual.