How do I get my 4 year old dd to accept medicine?

[bumbleweed]

Havent been on here for ages ... but really stressed out about my dd and need some advice or to know if these things are anywhere near normal!?

Amongst several things, one of the things is that if she is poorly in the night she just will not take medicine.

Eg she suffers trapped wind and wakes up in agonising pain. I can think of several things that would help - ginger tea, peppermint tea, water, calpol, warm beanie on tummy, bending knees up to tummy.

She just screams and screams at me to go away, and refuses all offers of help. Carries on screaming in agony - waking up the whole household and getting herself increasingly distressed.

The other day she stubbed her toe and got a big cut in it and the nail looked a bit mangled. She refused to let me near it to clean it, check it, put a plaster on it. I had to wait till she wasnt looking and squirt antiseptic spray at the toe from a distance. She went ballistic.

Now she wont go in the bath or be washed because of the toe. Or if she has even the slightest scratch or graze.

I have no idea if this is normaly for a 4 yr old or wtf are you supposed to do to look after your child's health if they wont let you and hurl abuse at you for trying.

To be frank as a nanny, i have followed the famillies lead, most families have taken a stance of if the child needs to have injury looked at/cleaned or medicine then that is what is going to happen, a reward often helped.

I do feel for you Bumbleweed, DS 4yr old was v poorly last year and in hospital for 4 months, he screamed the place down if anyone went near him with anything, even the smallest like cream/plasters. The play therapists did a lot of playing putting plasters on dollies, playing with syringes in the bath, and as prev mentioned lots of treats, afterwards. The strong medicine proved to be our hardest problem, he would not even take calpol from a spoon, in the end (flame me) we disguised all meds in a fruit shoot bottle as you cant see inside, only putting about 1/4 of the juice inside was enough to mask the flavour. They can be unreasonable at this age so think trickery is a good option until she is a bit older. Oh also found if I asked who he wanted to take off plasters/wipe etc he would occasionally come up with "Grandad" etc, maybe I became the villain afetr a while, Hope she feels better soon.

bumble I have no answers, but DS is the same, and he's five. We have yet to find the solution..

My children won't take medicine. When dd was 6 she finally realised I wasn't trying to kill her - but there is still only one sort that she'll take without a fuss.

Ds1 (5 next week) and ds2 (25mo) still have to be wrestled to the floor and held in a headlock while I squirt the stuff at the back of their throats with a syringe. And ds2 has worked out how to vomit at will, so even that doesn't always work.

I've tried bribery - trouble is if they need medicine then they are usually too ill to want anything that I could bribe them with!

no idea. DD2 is nearly 12 and hasn't taken anything for years and years. God only knows what would happen if she really needed something life saving.

mine too fruitful. I thought I'd cracked it last time and sat in front of him for well over an hour - told him I wasn't going away and that he couldn't move until he'd taken it. When he finally did he threw it straight back up again and all over me too.....

DS gets the choice, if its the likes of paracetamol, either in the mouth or up the bum is the choice, you can guess what option he will choose.

As a paediatric nurse I can promise you this isnt at all unusual...can you disguise medicine in yogurt/ice cream/juice? At work we have been known to squirt medicine into the middle of a hazlenut whirl??!!! Choc buttons straight after sometimes work? Would say force is not going to get you anywhere as children have VERY long memories making it a nightmare next time you try...constant negotiation tends to backfire with a wiley 4 year old cos they will keep you talking for hours...IME as little preparation as poss plus masses of bribery tends to work the best...Good Luck

thank you all for your replies

i feel much less like this is a freaky occurence purely of dd's own making (or result of my crap parenting!!)

i also worry what would occur if any truly bad illness happened to her

yes i will give thought to the disguising thing for medicine

still baffled how you get to look at injuries without a massive fight - force could be counter -productive as you could end up hurting the injury more, and the fear of the child is understandable I guess

My son used to refuse meds but at least I found a solution regarding paracetamol - Disprol, which you dissolve in liquid. I managed to disguise that far more easily in lemonade, than the already heavily flavoured syrups. I hope this helps!

DD1 has come out of school before now with blood all over her sleeves where she has cut her hand and hidden it from the teachers.
She is terrified of hospitals and doctors and won't let them examine her or talk to them.
No plasters, creams or spray are allowed.
We figured it was because when she was 2.5 she had food posisoning and had to be put on a drip, the 'magic cream' didn't work and she felt the drip go in.

If she ahs a cut or similar that needs washing I fill a bowl with warm water and tell her it has to be washed and we can do it the easy way or the hard way (which involves holding her down and washing it clan) but I only use that when there are obvious 'bits' hanging out.

I do bribe her with anything, magazines, dvds, chocolate etc.

We did have a turning point when she had pox the other week, I was telling her I could stop the itching if she would let me put cream on her but I wouldn't unless she asked, eventually on night 2 of screaming she begged me to put cream on her bum at 3am, peace!

Sorry, bit of a waffle, so nice to know we are not alone, feel like such a bitch trying to help her.