3 year old won’t take medicine and is in pain

[Biosblbay]

My 3 year old has always been a nightmare at taking his medicine, even calpol which most of us would enjoy taking. I think he has another ear infection coming, he has ear problems quite frequently, this runs in the family with ear issues, I have tried to explain to him that the medicine will make him better, I’ve tried offering it on a spoon as well as the syringe, he won’t take it in yogurt or mixed in a drink, he is traumatised by it from where we have had to wrestle him before to take it. I’m running out of options but I fear this is an infection and will need antibiotics which he will definitely need to take! I’m running out of ideas on what I can do. I have always had concerns he could be on the spectrum which makes it a lot more difficult. Any ideas/ tips please! Thank you x

It’s so hard when they don’t take it willingly! You could try putting sprinkles on the spoon/ hundreds and thousands and calling it something else!?

I beleive coke has been recommended on here. Obviously not an ideal drink for that age but strong enough to hide the flavour. Might need to de-fizz it or it'll be a terrible shock with the bubbles!

have you tried "mummy has some....teddy has some....you have some...."?

Forgot to say he also spits it out which is the hardest part, there’s no way of getting him to keep it down

Also, have him have a go at squirting syringe fulls of water in your mouth. Have a go back and forth to take the fear out of it. Teach him how to suck the water up himself and let him play with it (all water/juice). If you get some success with that you can make a glassfull of drink with the medicine in it and syringe it up bit by bit, super dilute.

@ThisAquaFinch@Trallers going to try all of these! Luckily I have half a can of opened coke in the fridge! @EllaPepper I have shown him me having some but not introduced his favourite teddy dinosaurs which I will try :) thanks all

I feel your pain - good luck. My son was the same and absolutely nothing anyone suggested worked with him aged 3.

We had this and resorted to suppositories. The GP will prescribe or you can buy OTC but they are expensive. They are super cheap OTC in Spain so we became drug mules for a while, stocking up on holiday and asking friends to do ghe sane.

Another tip I found was to buy the calpol that isnt sugar free.

Crushed and put inside a jam sandwich.

We have the same issue, but to the point she is absolutely terrified. DD was forced (literally held down while in pain) to have pain relief in hospital.

It isn't worth the anguish to keep forcing it, so please please ask your Dr for suppositories.

Can he be bribed? My 3 year old son will do more or less anything for chocolate buttons.