Antibiotics for a toddler

[ginandtonicformeplease]

DD is two, and has been prescribed antibiotics. She takes calpol and nurofen with no fuss, but we cannot get her to take the antibiotics (liquid). When we've managed to get them into her mouth, she won't swallow but will instead spit them out. Bribery hasn't worked. The taste is too bitter to hide them in food, and she's not been eating much anyway.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get them in her?

Yep, you just have to hold their nose until they open their mouth , spoon or use nurofen syringe thing to quickly put it in, then put your hand under her chin to press her mouth closed but then let go of the nose. She will have to swallow it.
She won’t be happy with it but if antibiotics are needed then they need to be taken. You can’t pussyfoot around. Children go downhill too quickly to not get antibiotics into them when needed.

What antibiotic and how big is the dose? 5ml? Or more?

Putting in yoghurt used to work, same flavour as the medicine of course

Sorry…if it’s amoxicillin- firstly the luminous yellow liquid in the 90s was actually tasty.

But I would get a really chocolatey syrup (or her fav ice cream sauce flavour syrup/golden) and mix it with that.

Maybe squirt the sauce out together onto some ice cream/treat first so she knows it’s nothing to do with medicine.
Then next time ask her if she wants some on a spoon. Lol.

My brother is 30 and still traumatised from being in hospital when he was 2 by a nurse pinning him down to make him take medicine in the method the above poster mentions - although I guess he is still here (the rest of the staff just gave dad the syringe and he took it fine).

Well we've just had success with calling calpol tubby custard and pretending to get all excited about it...previously liquid medicine was always called Mr Tumbles magic drink... but doesn't fall for that anymore...20 months old xx

Whatever they're into pretend its special drink or treat and get crazy excited about it, pretend to drink it yourself and play pretend drink by soft toys/ dolls. Reverse psychology works to....you pretend drink from the medicine cup, not letting them try it...until they are prising it out of your hands for themselves. Give 10/15 mins between each failed attempt so they forget what's really going on...

Mixing with lots of icing sugar often helps disguise the taste

Calpol syringe followed by a chocolate button or a haribo, it’s a dirty trick but mine are usually so distracted by the treat that they swallow the medicine

We've had this problem with my son this week. Like you have said it's to bitter to put into a drink as the antibiotics he is on is very bitter

Unfortunately we've had to resort to holding him down, holding his nose and putting it in his moth with a Calpol syringe. It's absolutely horrible having to do this but we've tried everything to get it into him and nothing is working

Which is it? Mine is on Azithromycin at the moment and it tastes like satans arsehole. I had a lick and holy god.

I've had success stirring it into a yoghurt then feeding her the yoghurt but check this is ok for the specific antibiotic your toddler is on.

If mixing in petit filous doesn’t work, the forcing option is wrap in a towel to swaddle their arms down and syringing half in at a time, squeeze nose after every bit.

We tried the pinning down and forcing it in method - I have no idea how she had it in her mouth for so long, but she just didn't swallow it.

We've got some chocolate ice cream syrup to disguise the taste, but you need so much to counteract the bitterness that it ends up a massive dish that she can't manage.

No problems with her taking calpol either from a syringe or a spoon, it's just the taste of this one.

We had the same problem. It's massively frustrating when people who had antibiotics 20 years ago (usually amoxicillin, with lots of sugar in) fail to understand quite how bad modern sugar free antibiotic suspensions taste. The adult tablet versions are swallowed in seconds, but the kids' penicillin (not yellow amoxicillin) and clarithromycin are so bitter most adults would struggle to take them without vomiting. You have my sympathy, if no helpful solution.,