how can i get my toddler to take his medicine?

[kissmummy]

it is a total nightmare and i am on the point of abandoning the course of antibiotics he's been given. he is 22 months old so too young to negotiate with or reason with or explain why we are putting him through this hell. he has terrible cold sores on his ear and has to take disgusting pink medicine four times a day, plus has cream for the ear itself. it seems to be working so far, but it is SO traumatic giving him the medication. there is no way he'll take it voluntarily on a spoon, so i've been trying to use a little syringe (turkey baster type thing) to force it into his mouth.i try to wrap him in a towel so his arms can't move but he screams and twists his head from side to side and even if we pinch his nose so he has to open his mouth (a nurse suggested this - it feels like child abuse) he will only open it the slightest crack and then spits all the medicine out at the first chance, coating himself and everything around him in dark pink hellish sticky mixture. the whole process takes about half an hour, involves him going into total meltdown, makes me feel like going into meltdown myself, and at the end of it all, i don't think he's actually had much of the medicine anyway. does anyone have any tips?

Oh, that sounds so rotten for all of you.
I mix ds's in a bit of melted ice cream. He will usually take it then, but if he is still reticent, I am not averse to bribery.

does he take a dummy? if so then wait until he is asleep and use one of those dummy dispensers.
you ought to be able to do 3 doses like that (once at bedtime, once before he wakes up and once for daytime nap)

I alway try and get it in the side of a cheek and follow up quickly with a nice drink.

There are a few things you might try

• get his teddy to give it to him on a spoon.
• bribery - force the meds in if necessary then shove in a chocolate button
• ask the GP to prescribe suppositories instead
• mix it into yogurt or Ribena or jam

TBH though, when my DD had a long course of antibiotics which were foul (I tasted them as I tried to hide them in other food) only the force-feeding method was any good. You need to put the syringe between the cheek and the teeth and then squirt into the back corner of his mouth. Then you rub just under his chin to make him swallow. I know it feels like cruelty but it is absolutely not and amazingly after a while he might just drink the meds willingly.

I was going to suggest the pinching nose trick, but see someone has already.
My next suggestion is bribery!

Or let him hold the spoon and give him a choccy biscuit afterwards!

thanks for the suggestions. thisisyesterday i've never heard of a dummy dispenser? it sounds absolutely brilliant. where do you get them? he loves his dummy but is only allowed it for sleeping/naps or when he's sick so this could definitely be the answer to our problem.

like this

the actual teat is completely different to the dummies my son took, but I just would swap it once he went to sleep and he'd suck on it a bit and I could usually manage to get most of it into him before he realised lol