help needed getting my little boy to take antibiotics

[helsywebb]

My 18 month old boy, Harry, has a nasty ear infection and raging temperature and he has been prescribed amoxicillin. He point blank refuses to take this from a spoon, syringe, or through his bottle teat! The doctor has said if he refuses this tomorrow, he may need to be admitted to hospital for it to be administered intravenously.

I really dont want my little boy to go into hospital and I was wondering if anyone has any tips on getting him to take the medicine. He hasnt eaten anything for the past 6 days, he will only drink his milk. Can I mix it in his milk??

Any help appreciated

if you squirt the syringe into the side of his cheek he might swallow it automatically.

although my DD has taken it in her milk, she tended to leave a bit at the bottom though.

I had to force medicine into DS, I'm afraid I used to pin him down and squirt the syringe into his cheek.

Ring the GP in the morning and ask if it's OK to mix it in milk, or yoghurt etc?

He is clamping his mouth shut, and when i do get some in he gags and spits it out!!! He does love his milk, so maybe ill try that! thx

Could you mix it in a small amount of milk and then give the rest of the milk once he's had the little bit?

Mixing it with Ribena worked well for my niece

We have mixed it in yogurt, juice, milk before, and the more extreme baked beans which really hid the flavour.

I've posted on this myself! I totally sympathise with you. Mixing it with yogurt and giving it before his meals worked best for us. Bribes were no use and we have a lovely yellow stain on our cream carpet from where ds spat it out, he would clamp his mouth shut and now doesn't trust syringes either. It's not easy is it?! Hope he's better soon

It's very stressful for you - I know from experience. Even the staff at A&E couldn't get DD to take anything, not even calpol. The best I can suggest is mixing it with something and squirting it into his cheek, as already suggested. The only problem with mixing it with food or drink is that they must eat/drink it all otherwise they have not had the correct dose. I have tried just about everything, but the most successful by far was nutella. Obviously you will need to think about brushing his teeth! I found that coating the syringe with nutella helped too. It still had to be forced though. I would also say that I went back to the GP and asked if there was an alternative and she prescribed something called Zythromycin (not sure about the spelling) which was only 3ml per day for 3 days in the week. This helped massively. If you blow onto his face when you have squirted it in, then it can encourage them to swallow. If you do get a different prescription, I would ask them to give you extra so that you don't stress if any gets wasted. Good luck!

By the way, a friend of mine swears by mixing it with coke (the drink, not the drug).

Mixing with flavoured yoghurt and sugar worked for us.

Syringes are not fool proof. DD has managed to cover a few nurses with medicine who gave her medicine with a syringe.

If really necessary, tip him back so knees are higher than head, squirt syringe in, then tip back up the right way. Teh antibiotics should have been swallowed.

But the yoghurt and sugar option is preferable, IMO.

has anyone suggested a petit filous? Mix it in and spoon feed as normal.

I feel your pain, colditz petit filous is a good diea, espeically if you mix it in the pot so he thinks it is 'undoctored' but mix it well as it takes grim.
amoxy is so vile tasting I don't know why they prescribe it tbh, I used to use lollipops and chocolate as bribes but at that age it's either tricks or brute force and holding the mouth shut I'm afraid, hated doing it but after a few times they got the message.

I used to mix DD's with a small spoonful of ice cream, then another small scoop afterwards as a reward/bribe/treat whatever.

These days she loves any medicine though, except the Klaricid (for a grotty chest infection) which was rank.