Toddler medicine PLEASE HELP

[elephanto]

My child refuses to take medicine.

We've tried hiding it in food and drink, bribery with chocolate, distraction with the iPad and more...

It's now so bad that the only way to do it is to pin him down and syringe it in. He then spits the majority of it back out.

He gets himself in such a state about it that afterwards he vomits so anything that does go in doesn't have any impact.

He's really unwell and I'm seriously stressed that if I can't get his antibiotics into him we're going to end up in hospital (which has already happened earlier this year)

Please help

How old is he?

This sounds like my 1 year old son! There was once i gave him a syringe and he happily sticked it out but never again. The only idea I've seen I haven't tried yet is dipping a lolly in the medicine and see if hell suck it off the lolly, other than that I have no advice but you have my sympathy.

He's just turned 2

Nightmare. I have been there. I have even had to get additional bottles of antibiotics because my son wasted so much with spitting out, batting away spoons etc. In the end I opted for bribery over force.

Working up from trying a drop of it on his finger. Whatever your child wants, every kid has a price. Problem with antibiotics is you can't even get different flavours (unlike calpol for instance).

If you've forced it down and had it come back up - now he's going to be more fearful, so you're going to have to back off and take it slower. I hope it works out.

Pin him down. No nonsense, down it goes and there's some chocolate. Got to be done,wrap him in a towel if necessary. Shoot it to the back of his mouth from the side with a syringe.

have you tried hiding it in nesquick chocolate pots they have a strong taste which could cover .Its trial and error to find something with a strong enough taste to hide ,chocolate milk work for my daughters piriton

We had this problem and as a last resort (weirdly as it's so obvious, but not to me at the time!) I gave him the spoon and role played, he then enthusiastically tipped up the medicine bottle to fill the spoon up and took at with great pleasure x

Half rouse him from sleep and squirt it in the side of his mouth with a syringe really gently. Then shush him back to sleep.

Ask the doctor for a different prescription, eg if it's 125mg/ml strength, ask for 250mg/ml and give half the amount.

If all else fails and you absolutely can't get them to swallow it, you could ask the GP if it's available as a suppository.

@MrsMaisel I think we're going to have to do the same. He's batted so many spoonfuls out of my hand.

I'm out of bribery ideas - I don't know what's better than chocolate buttons or smarties.

@DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen that's what we're having to do but he either chokes then vomits it or spits it up or blows raspberries.

@rosydreams I will try those.Thanks

Thanks everyone for the ideas!!

i agree with SlB09 role play can sometimes help but yeah try to find something really sickly sweet or strong taste to cover it .Try not to stress kids unfortunately can smell it a mile off and are immediately apprehensive.Try to keep your cool and goodluck this can be so stressful

Every teddy and toy in the house has sampled the medicine - sadly the roleplaying hasn't helped at all

If all else fails and you absolutely can't get them to swallow it, you could ask the GP if it's available as a suppository

I'm not sure how that will be any easier

Well, he can't spit it out that way Dame

Haha they gave him suppositories when he was in hospital. He managed to squeeze those out too!!

Only way that worked for my medicine refuser was to put the medicine in a syringe (we used the one that came in the calpol box), squirt a small amount onto the back of his cheek (avoiding the tongue where lots of taste buds are) then hold his cheeks together gently so he can't spit it out. Felt bad holding his cheeks together but if he didn't get the meds down him he would have been v v ill and hospital treatment would have been v traumatic for him.

Then chocolate buttons as a reward.

After a while he was ok with taking meds, I think he associated it with getting chocolate!

Have you tried it in yoghurt? My dd is exactly the same but she will usually take it hidden in a bit of yoghurt. I think she doesn't really notice it because it masks the flavour.

Or even better, chocolate mousse stuff especially if you don't normally have it!

No direct experience but a friend had great success with those disgusting milkshake straws, I think made by nesquick? Hide the medicine in the milk, it was so exciting the DC didn't notice anything in the milk

Also, try and offer it as a treat but nonchalantly (I know that's easier said than done) but if you hover over waiting for him to drink it he'll know something is amiss, especially as you have been stressed about getting the medicine in

Juice boxes work for my little one! Syringe the medicine in and he'll never know.

You could also squeeze out 1/2 the juice and replace back into the carton with more medicine (via syringe) at the next medicine time.

I have also found yoghurts a good place to hide meds. But nothing works as well as juice cartons.

I’m one for suppositories! My sister in law is Italian and told me about them when my daughter use to throw up her medicine. main land Europe embrace things up bottoms!

Thank you so much everyone!! Today was hell - fingers crossed for better luck tomorrow - lots of new things to try out!!

Mix with ice cream

How did it go? Hope you're nearing the end of the course?