My 4 year old won’t take medications

[PurpleCurlycorn]

I’m at my wits end and looking for advice.

my LG has had tonsillitis, last Saturday started with, what I thought was a tummy bug but then I saw a small amount of blood in urine the following day. Had a temp. Called 111 and they sent us to A&E which was a waste of time. They didn’t even check her over- just did a finger prick test to check bm and then told us to come back at 4.30am the next morning.

needless to say I waited for our gp to reopen, at 8am. Anyway they were brill, fully checked her over and diagnosed Tonsillitis- I was shocked as she only started with a sore throat that morning. Urine was clear after being tested. GP gave antibiotics for the throat, but she wouldn’t take them.

I put them in yoghurt, didn’t like it, strawberry milkshake, wouldn’t touch it, chocolate milkshake, nope, tried just giving off spoon, she screamed like we were torturing her 🙈 it was horrendous. She’s been recovering though even though she isn’t having the antibiotics so it possible that the tonsillitis is viral, but tonight she’s started with ear ache and I can’t even get calpol into her. Won’t have it. Put it in juice and has gone back to refusing to drink it. She will sometimes take calpol but now she really needs it, won’t.

im losing the will. Anyone else experienced this and if so, what do you do?

my eldest takes the calpol fast melts but they are six plus. Anyone had advice on whether you can give these to under six if you say cut one in half?

I’ve worked out that 1/2 a fast melts is 125mg of paracetamol and a 4-6 year old can take 240mg of paracetamol. Just wondering if it’s safe. Obviously I can’t ring pharmacy as they now shut

Any help would be really appreciated

I taught mine to swallow tic tacs whole. Peas and sweetcorn too.

from there tablets were easy. I remember the relief on the dr’s face when she was trying to do the maths converting tablet dose to liquid form. Far simpler when they just take the tablets!

neither of mine would ever take liquid meds. Why are you giving the paracetamol? Is she struggling to sleep? In pain? If she’s doing ok without I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

i think you need to wait for a pharmacist for the fast melts though.

I used to bribe mine with sweets. They had the meds and could have a sweet straight after it to take the horrible taste away, and then have a drink of milk or juice.

I feel your pain. We just had tonsillitis and my 8 year old refused the first 2 types of antibiotics! Before hand he understood that the medicine might not taste nice but he needed it to get better, but all rational thinking went out the window once he tasted it. What ones do you have? Some are truly awful.
The calpol should be easier, but you have to convince her to actually taste it first. I have no idea re tablets, but def try a pharmacy this morning, and if they can't advise then call 111. You can also get paracetamol as suppositories on prescription

I mix it in chocolate yoghurt or mousse.

Thank you everyone for your help. We tried giving calpol because of the pain she was in but wasn’t happening. But then she eventually fell asleep so I stopped trying.

I have since taken her to pharmacy though this morning as her ear is weeping and it’s dripping from her ear, and they have given her more antibiotics- this time amoxicillin which tastes nice to me- the lot she had for her tonsillitis was Pen V and that tastes awful. It’s just getting her to taste it and realise it’s not that bad. She would normally take calpol, but it’s Sod’s Law when she really, really needs it, it’s a firm NO.

I have since managed to get her to drink some juice, which has nurofen in it. Lots of sleep and now we’re having ice cream and chocolate sauce. And I’ve put her antibiotics in it too. One dose down, lots more to go. Yoghurt, mousse, milkshakes, more ice cream, I’ll try anything. Just hope she eats it.

thank you all again

By force, if they have an infection they need antibiotics. Not nice, but necessary. I wish we were given tablets I could crush up though instead of that awful yellow gunk.

Syringe the medication into the gum at the back of DD’s mouth between her cheek and teeth. If you syringe slowly enough in the right area it can’t be spat out.

At that age I would bribe, let them syringe them in themselves or if necessary force it (maybe with distraction of watching something on your phone?). Antibiotics are non negotiable

Pen v by force or syringe was just thrown right back up by my DS. Sometimes it just doesn't work. Amox is sooooo much better. You can hide it easily 👍🏻
Pen v and clarythromycin are impossible to hide. Why oh why can't they just leave the sugar in? For the small amount they have it really wouldn't do any harm!

When my daughter have scarlet fever she had pen V which is absolutely vile, really not surprised the little one is refusing it. The only thing that would get it into her was Nutella. A big spoonful of Nutella, microwave for a few seconds to soften it then squirt the medicine in, mix then give it to her. We made a really big deal of the nice doctor giving her some chocolate medicine because the last one was so yucky. She loved it and asked for more every time. We went through a full tub of Nutella in 10 days but needs must!