To be so frustrated with my 3 year old?

[BrieCamera]

I know I probably am.

We’ve been ill near enough every week since October and I’m seriously at the end of my tether with it - it’s relentless.

As everyone knows caring for sick kids whilst your ill yourself is hardly fun, however my biggest frustration is that DD just won’t help herself at all. Is this common? She completely refuses calpol or any other medicine and she’s now screaming as her throat is killing her. I just can’t get through to her if she drinks something and has some painkiller she will feel better. Antibiotics are a total no-go, and I live in fear of her having some raging bacterial infection as she’ll have to be admitted into hospital and have them through IV because there’s no physical way to get her to have them, if you half-force her or hide it in a drink she will just vomit it back up.

She’s my second child and the most stubborn human I’ve ever met. Does anyone have any advice who have similarly stubborn kids who would sooner die of pain then do something reasonable like have the sodding calpol??

PS just want to reassure you that my frustration comes from a place of love as I hate seeing her poorly - not that I can’t be arsed looking after her or anything!

Game changer:- add chocolate sauce.

I can't believe I only first did this when my very similar son was 2.5. works like a dream.

for you sickness sucks.

Oh the illnesses are miserable aren’t they. Hold her down and forcibly administer it, it’s the only way.

Equally if she won’t drink, get some apple juice and a clean calpol syringe and do the same. We were advised to do this by an A&E doctor when DD was refusing liquids. It’s not nice, but it’s the only way to make them feel better.

I have one of those. I mix calpol with a yoghurt pouch as that's the only way he'll take it.

Treat it like a life threatening condition you would have to get it down her then. If bribery doesn't work. Wrap in blanket to control arms or lay on floor head between your legs arms under each leg during to side of mouth

Have you tried different flavoured liquid paracetamol? Lloyds Pharmacy do a Cherry or Orange flavour.

DS has become a bit of a nightmare for this as he’s got older strangely (now 8), rather than when he was younger. Recently had to give him two different really foul-tasting liquid antibiotics and I saw trying chocolate milk before and after taking recommended- the milk texture coats the mouth and throat and helps to disguise the taste somewhat.

Also to squirt the syringe into the cheek rather than onto the tongue as you get less flavour that way.

Add sprinkles to the top of the spoon of calpol!

My little girl is the same, we mix calpol with a small amount of lemonade (that she doesn’t have usually) and ask if she would like some of a mummy’s drink, been successful so far!

I told my daughter she could have a spoon of anything she wanted straight after the spoon of medicine and we got it ready before.
She chose butter
I was surprised thinking she would choose sugar or Nutella!

Absolutely this. And if she does end up on a drip, it’s bad but not the end of the world - might frighten her into taking it in future (not that you wish anyone to learn the hard way quite like that).

I feel you. My 3 year old DD won't swallow calpol, nurofen, or that banana amoxicillin. I split her lip twice by holding her down and forcing it in. If I got any in her she'd then retch and vomit whatever tiny amount I got in. It was so stressful. Thankfully we got a prescription for capsules we could open and sprinkle into peanut butter and she ate that 3 times a day! Anyway hopefully that reassures you that there are options for infections.
For regular painkillers I mix orange nurofen into chocolate ice cream. The orange nurofen is available at Morrisons and tesco, and it's such a mild flavour it's unnoticeable.
Have you tried watching "Get Well Soon" on iPlayer? There's an episode for every ailment.

Good luck, keep going

Mix it with something that she likes. For my son that was ketchup. He spotted it in juice.

Oh god it’s such a nightmare when they’re like this. DS was appalling for it, we ended up being admitted 3 times before he was 4 for IV antibiotics as I couldn’t get them in. No use saying wrap in a blanket etc I just couldn’t hold him and he’d spit and scream and vomit and be so distressed by it it was even worse.

I did manage occasionally to hide it in something but never reliably. The only thing which helped is a LOT of play with a syringe and water, feeding it to mummy, giving some to teddy etc. Chocolate sauce and sprinkles also sometimes worked.

Does she like ice lollies? My solution was to let them have loads of ice lollies when they were I'll as the cold helped numb their mouth, it helped with their liquid intake and the sugar got them feeling better

Had this with DS2, like pp have said ask for caplets you can mix the contents into yoghurt of some Nutella etc. DS2 was wild and would spit medicine back at me 😩

DS1 was like this. We used to put it in a baby bottle with full strength squash, not the tiny dribble of flavour he was allowed day to day.

By 3 or 4 we were onto full sugar coke as bribery. Only for medicine. But it did work.

None of my other two refuse medicine, unless it tastes horrible. It was really stressful and you have my sympathy. Try not to show her you're frustrated as IME it does make it worse. Their distress is real and you being calm helps, in the sense that it won't make the situation any worse.

For calpol etc you can also get the 6+ stuff and calculate the dosage using weight, if you feel comfortable doing that, that helped as much less volume to get in. We now live abroad and the standard strength for children's medicine is the 40mg/ml which is the 6+ strength in the UK. It feels bonkers trying to get huge doses into little people. Much easier to give 1.25 or 2.5ml!

Or try the fast melts and cut into half or quarters, I think half would be the dose for a 3yo (definitely check this!) He was honestly happier when he could have half an adult paracetamol in a spoonful of jam and started taking adult tablets as soon as he could swallow them. 3 much too young for this of course.

My daughter was like this until 3.5. I then switched from the sugar free calpol to the version with sugar/colour in and now she takes it without a fuss. Have you tried the sugar free version? It does have a strong after taste.

I used to do all the above and sometimes then give medicine in the bath. They would be distracted and couldn't get away. Then you could brush teeth straight after to get rid of any taste.

Mix in juice, yoghurt, angel delight etc?

Bribe with chocolate after?

Dc had scarlette fever. Had the red antibiotics it was vile.
Only way they would take it was to have some of daddy's fizzy after. So had a beaker with some lemonade in ( with added water) not ideal but medicine was more important

As for drinks, ice pops, ice lollies, ice cream, jelly all liquid

My daughter was like this when she was small and vomited over a nurse in hospital when they gave her calpol. So they started giving suppository paracetamol instead. They told me I could get it prescribed by GP so I’d call your Dr and ask. If nothing else it might convince her that the liquid option is the lesser of two evils!

sorry OP, it’s so hard when they’re sick

I remember those days. I didn't force because Calpol isn't generally lifesaving so the trauma of forcing her would have been worse than not having Calpol.
She did eventually start taking calpol but then of course took time to move to the 6+ version and then moving to adult pills wasn't ready either but they get there eventually.
We even managed to get antibiotics in her at one point with chocolate bribery.

I had the same problem and so I bought orange flavour nurofen (I think it works better than calpol) and made a big thing about it being orange flavour and she happily has it now. We found an apple flavour one too that she will take.

Also as pp have suggested try sugar free versions

We have 3 under 2 and similar since November endless bugs or one hell of a long bug. Anyway none will take calpol voluntarily so we have to slip it in-between sucking there bottles or sometimes holding them and giving no choice as they done understand a the it will help with pain and temperatures etc

Pause TV midway through an episode. Only press play again when she's accepted the dose.