5 year old refusing to allow treatment or medication

[sleepymum12]

We had a rushed trip to A&E last night because my 5 year old suddenly started, out of the blue, coughing, wheezing and struggling to breathe. On arrival we found his Spo2 levels were too low, and heart rate too high. Having high rates of asthma on both sides of ghe family, docs think this is the likely cause. He has been totally fit and healthy before this, never had more than a mild cold, so has little to no experience with doctors.

The problem we are having is that he is fighting against having the medication. Even having the oxygen mask or nebulizer near his face, causes him to scream and cry, throw himself about etc, in a way he never normally would. Even taking liquid paracetamol is sending him off on a huge meltdown, when obviously he has taken Calpol at home for years!! He even fights against having the sensor attached to his finger to check his vitals. The doctor really wants to get things under control and then have him able to use an inhalor with a spacer before he is discharged, but I don't know when or how we will acheive this. We are on a second night in hospital at the moment, and have scolded, bribed, phoned grandparents, tried every trick in the book and are at a loss. We are just about getting enough medication into him to keep him at safe levels for blood oxygen etc.......any body else experienced this? What did you do?? He just seems to be terrified of anything medical. The strange thing is, he will talk, joke, accept treats etc from the nurses etc just fine, he only has a problem when it comes time to take medicine etc

Can you model it for him? (Obviously don't fully press the button to eject the inhalant, but otherwise pretend.) Show him Mummy and Daddy can do it. Are there any older kids around who could demonstrate for him too?
Leverage that peer pressure for good! A "big boy" 7 year old may have more social influence than the rest of you (!)

Children and parents pick up each others distress hormones and signals so it just escalates for both.

I suggest you agree with nurses that you tell DC you are going to the toilet and disappear while the nurses medicate him. He will probably calm down and take it quite easily for them.

It is something they just have to get used to my DD needed an inhaler at 2. When she had a wheeze we used to have to wake her regulary in the night to give it to her and it involved holding her down. As others have said negotiating took longer and she would still refuse, they get used to it quickly.

At 4 she had to have antibiotics that tasted vile. She knew that there was no negotiation she had to have them to get better and she got a chocolate button to take the taste away after.

Eye drops at 4 were not fun either so again it was a pinning down....a year on and she is so tolerant of having them done. She is not scarred by being pinned down. She understands the treatment was necessary.

Dgs was diagnosed with diabetes at 5. No amount of modelling, bribing or negotiation was going to work. We had to pin him down. It was horrible but necessary. Within a fortnight he was testing his own blood sugars and injecting his own insulin. He had another blip with set changes when he got his pump but it didn’t last long.

I hope he’s feeling better soon.

My youngest has asthma and is austistic. She couldn’t do inhalers & spacers when very little so she was prescribed montelukast chewable tablets that she had every day as a preventative. We then did a lot of the role play with toy inhalers and spacers and she eventually got it.

I’m against pinning a child down and forcing medical treatment on them unless it is a true emergency/urgent situation. So if his oxygen levels go down too low, yes going to have to force him.

Thank you all so much for the advice, we have gone through playing, bribing, and even pinning down and I can't honestly say one worked better than the rest, except that he now seems to be accepting that it's happening no matter what! He actually took quite a few doses today quite cooperatively and is doing really well generally so hopefully be getting home tomorrow. It also always helps to hear it isn't just your kid acting this way!! So thanks for that, and for making me feel less guilty when I did have to pin him down!!