To ask how you get a 14 month old to take medicine I’m out of ideas

[B3ck89]

My little one has had a temp and feeling very groggy last few days, tried so many times to get him to take calpol... syringe, spoon, airplane, mixing it in a drink but no luck he spits, gags and goes tight lip.
Today I took him docs and he has a throat infection and ear infection so he’s on penicillin (horrible banana stuff) just had not a lot of fun trying to get him to take it, soon as he sees the syringe he screams blue murder. I must of got 1ml if that in him, the rest ended up on both of us
Does anyone please please please have any tips at all? Or a yoghurt/drink strong enough to disguise the smell and taste

Just hd my girl on ten days of penicillin and all but one dose was mixed with juice or milk in a sippy

Mixing it with ice cream was the only thing that worked for us.

I put the dogs in yogurt - might work for humans too (who luckily have less bitey teeth!)

We had to give my DD medicine twice a day for months after surgery. It was a nightmare at first but we got a good tip. It's much harder for them to spit out a tiny amount. Just put a drip in their cheek over and over, they'll struggle to spit it out.

Looks really awful written down but I would try begging and bribery until he would get so distressed he would run away and cry. I would end up chasing him and somehow pinning him down and as he cried with his mouth open I’d just quickly squirt it in. He’d immediately stop crying and panicking once it was done. Sounds awful but he’s not traumatised.

Jammy toast - we ask for crushable tablets as DD was a liquid medication refuser

Now she is 7 and can have those calpol melts it’s a little easier but antibiotics still a nightmare

My son was the same, such a battle! I second the suppositories, they also make them for children’s pain relief. Miles easier that way than through the mouth.

If the syringe is causing horror, I find using a spoon can be easier. Draw up the dose, drip a little of it into the spoon. Sit child on your knee, hug with one arm to pin their arms and distract with Telly/phone if old enough. You can usually force a little bit in with the spoon and keep it under their lips if they do spit out so you can recover it and spoon it back in. Then add the next drop to the spoon etc.

For my slightly older toddler, allowing him to hold my phone and watch a Peppa video while getting loads of praise was what worked for us.

Be v careful with syringe if using that in the more assertive methods - make sure that you have it aimed inside the cheek. There is a risk of aspiration/choking if you squirt it straight into the mouth and down the airway.

Best wishes. Loads of threads like this on here so do a search - I posted one about a month ago and got great advice.

Total nightmare, I’m a paeds nurse and have 4 of my own so given lots of meds to unwilling babies and toddlers and older kids too.

We often advise not putting it in something as they often don’t drink all the milk/juice etc but if it works try it. We were in America and my little boy had tonsillitis and needed antibiotics, he didn’t take any meds up till that point and the amoxicillin was bubble gum flavour and a huge bottle we shared with his little brother who takes meds fine. So we stuck it in pure orange juice and he took it. He loved that stuff and over there it’s stronger/sweeter.

Other things is wrapping him up and using a syringe to squirt small amounts in his cheek works well if they use a dummy too, then blow gently in his face stimulates a swallow.
Good luck I know how hard it is, but worse if they don’t take anything and need a cannula and IV antibiotics. Being a parent is hard sometimes good luck x

I was a tough love Mum - taught mine to hold her nose and swallow it down....

How old is he? If you can bribe him with choc buttons as a pp suggested I'd do that. Otherwise mix it into a large petit filous.

Mine was a mess refuser and the ONLY thing that worked (including syringing into cheeks) was putting it into the feat of her bottle. It sounds weird but he bypassed her tastebuds I think. I would take the test, no bottle attached and put the syringe inside then wait for her to start sucking before depressing the plunger. It felt odd - but it worked!!

Syringe in side of mouth whenever he opens it, squirt little bits in quickly then immediately blow on face which makes them swallow it.

Definitely suppositories.

I know this sounds strange ( and slightly cruel) but if you can get it squirted in mouth hold his lips almost like a pout and be has no choice but to swallow.this saved my sanity when a nurse told me this technique when my doctor was about the same age.

daughter not doctor🙃

Put it in a spoon and press the spoon down on his tongue and they have to swallow

Try it yourself first - it’s way to do

I love this video. I hope it helps!

Does he have a dummy you could use one of these
www.amazon.co.uk/Elemed-BD200-Dispenser-administering-medicinal/dp/B0153HYP96?tag=mumsnetforum-21

There’s also the trick of putting the syringe into the teat of a bottle if he still uses one, although he might be a bit too for that. Will try and attach a picture

We used to 'immobilise' (tight hug), syringe full into the cheek and then blow in their face (which forces a swallow reflex).

Easiest way I found was to hand him the syringe and let him think he was doing it himself.

Oh dear god OP, you have my utmost sympathy.

My youngest is nearly 32 and I can still remember the smell of that banana medicine, as we called it, and the terrible trauma, for me, of trying to get it into her.

The older DCs weren't too difficult but for the youngest I found the easiest way was little drops on a spoon gradually fed into child's mouth; this method was hit upon after many other methods were tried and failed.

Mine always loved medicine, but and I know this is an awful comparison to make, when giving it to my pup, I squeezed his jaws together and squirted it under his tongue then released him really quickly? So I might actually try the same on a baby as it is sort of life-threatening. SHOOT ME NOW! If you don't prolong the process and have everything set up beforehand, it'll be done before they even have time to squawk!

I also have a lifetime of squirting Infacol into dd. I did that quick and mean too. I think she liked it in the end lol.

And before anyone asks, as I seem to be getting attacked left right and centre here today, when I was giving dd Infacol I actually asked my paediatrician whether she was going to be traumatised. Doc laughed and said no, so I'm good with that.