Medicine taking for extremely stubborn 5 year old

[Sunshine2904]

My 5 year old was prescribed prednisolone yesterday at a&e for breathing difficulties off the back of a hospital admission three weeks ago for the same thing. He absolutely hates it - it took an hour and a half doing minute amounts in hospital and then he ended up throwing up by the end of it. He has a very sensitive gag reflex which doesn’t help and I think he’s got such a mental block with it that it’s just triggering him to gag each time.

So far we’ve tried bribery, eating chocolate/pastry/sweets at the same time/straight after, drinking water/squash with it at the same time or straight after, mixed into yogurt and the latest was mixed into chocolate mousse which one of the nurses suggested. We had better success but he had to have so much mousse mixed into it, he refused to finish it as he was feeling sick.

He’s a very smart boy and I’ve explained the whys and also what will happen if he doesn’t take it - not sure that holding him down and forcing it into him will work as he’ll just be sick - but to no avail. It’s been an awful morning because I just lost it with him and shouted out of frustration and exhaustion 😔

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I’m also wary that we will end up in hospital again before long and obviously will be limited in what we can mix it up with to get it into him.

I have a kid like this. I once syringed the dose( anti biotics for chest infection) into a piece of cake and let it soak in for a few minutes. That worked. Also she didn't know it was in there. She loves cake.

Oh and don't berate yourself for getting frustrated, I have done that too.

My son has been on steroids since about 4 and he always had the tablet form. Not prednisolone in our case - hydrocortisone.
If you were able to get a tablet form, would he swallow that? It might be less revolting. You could do with chocolate milk etc.

Kids liquid meds are really disgusting.

Ice cream and squeezy sauce on top!

Thanks for everyone’s replies - yes, we get them in tablet form so I tried to get him to swallow one today but he could taste/feel it so just swallowed the juice and spat the pill out. Chocolate milk might be good though as it’s a bit thicker - we tried it with the tablets dissolved as a liquid and wrote it off but might give that another try.

He’s a bit funny with ice cream and always wants it almost melted down and like a sauce so I think the taste of the medicine might come across.

I think trying to get him to swallow the pills quickly would be the best bet so will persevere with that. Actually, my mum also suggested peanut butter too this morning so might give that a try.

My son has to take tablets and we've found putting them in a raspberry works well for us (it's almost like they were made to hold something...!)

They're bitter if they 'melt' in your mouth. Poor kiddo I hope he gets used to it!!
I would persist with the bribery. If the tablet goes down, gets something sweet after.

If you got tablets crush and mix into a spoon of chocolate spread. Or melt some chocolate and mix it in.