Any tips on getting medicine (capsule) down DD? Am desperate - its Tamiflu -

[forbes]

Please help, DD age 2 has been diagnosed today with swine flu, got the Tamiflu capsules, and just had disater trying to get contents down her - followed dr advice and put contents into choc mousse - she's not having ANY of it! DH thinks we should try to force next one down her, but we absolutely won't be doing that since really dont want to terrify poor little thing, so am hoping for some suggestions as to how else to get it into her! p.s. am also trying v v hard not to have a wobble about all this and keep my sensible hat on, but isn't easy..... thanks in advance

Strong flavoured fruit smoothie in a coloured cup with a straw?

open the capsule and empty the contents into a mousse or drink.
stir till its all disolved and then give it to her.

don't let her know its even in there and she wont taste it.

I have the worlds fissiest eater, he can even tell if i've microwaved something rather than putting it in the oven, but he doesn't notice if i do this

Thanks so much for your replies - will put it in her milk in a beaker tomorrow morning, she usually guzzles that down in 1 go, so will hopefully work.... Can't believe how quickly it came on - literally during the course of today, temperature is coming down now thanks to double dose of calpol and neurofen, but don't think we'll be getting much sleep tonight - wish it was me that had it and not her! Am watching DS like a hawk... may be looking for some hand holding if both my babies get poorly!

Also - does she like to joke? Can you pretend that you are going to guzzle/eat all her drink/mousse? makes mine eat/drink faster while paying more attention to me!

My DD is aged 2, do you mind telling me what i should be looking out for?
Hope your DD is better soon

Mix it in jam. I'm yet to meet the 2 year old who doesn't think getting to eat a spoon of jam is a hoot.

ADealingMummy, it started with bad nappy, then she fell asleep in the morning which is unheard of, missing lunch, then when she woke up her temp was 39.5! Was v upset and not herself at all.... she now has developed classic runny nose and throat sounds sore poor little thing - classic flu symptoms really....really hope you avoid it.....had a v scary night with raging temp and upset DD - still no luck getting tamiflu down her this morning in her milk - NHS direct just said to put it in only 5-10ml ice cream and basically force it down her! This is going to be awful!

You poor thing

I had to force medicine down my nearly 2 yr old DS (at the time). Slightly different as it was liquid but the only way I could get it down him was in a syringe as far back into his mouth as possible and to hold his mouth shut .

Could you somehow empty it into a syringe, put some water with it and shake it then squirt it? Horrible at the time but one of those cases of having to be cruel to be kind. He soon forgot - and we were getting through about 20 syrgines a day with all his different medicines (after an operation).

Thanks all, yes i'm going to try mixing it with tiny bit of squash and squirt it down her - you're right about being cruel to be kind - if DS gets it, at least Ican bribr him with chocolate to swallow the capsule, but a stubborn DD age 2 will have none of it, so left with no option really - many thanks for all the advice.

Sorry you've got this worry. Hope you find something which works. Let us know if you do...we all may need tips.

I used a neurofen syringe to get capsules into DD when she was that age. I also (oh this is bad) melted chocolate on wax paper, sprinkled the medicine on the top (in little blobs like buttons), threw them in the freezer for ten minutes till they set and told DD not to eat the chocolate buttons, then left the room for five minutes. Now the latter worked because she's a sucker for chocolate buttons!

I may be wrong, but I think that tamiflu or equivalent is available as a liquid for children (emc.medicines.org.uk/document.aspx?documentId=%2010701)? Might it be worth ringing the flu line to find out (probably the last thing you feel like doing right now!)

Tamiflu is apparently very bitter - I don't know if it'd help to use something very sweet to counter it? My mum always used to hide Sea Legs in bits of Twix bars!

Morning, well i'm pleased to report that we managed to squirt it down her using syringe successfully both last night and this morning, though it's a bit fiddly to decant the powder and mix it with 5ml squash! Also after 48 hrs of doubling up with calpol and ibuprofen she's much much better.....fingers crossed she's over the worst of it. Thank you all so much for the advice...it's rife here where we are in the midlands. I guess I would just recommend having a syringe handy and be aware that they can come down with it so so fast, in DD's case, the worst bit was getting her fever under control but once we managed that, she perked up...Just waiting to see who out of me, DH or DS comes down next!

Glad she's starting to rally. How long was she ill for if you don't mind me asking? I just went out and restocked the medicine cabinet - it's surprising how much swine flu is costing in terms of extra tissues/loo rolls/kids medicines!

glad to hear she's feeling better. Was swine flu confirmed by a swab, or wsa it clinically diagnosed by Dr?

Hi, lal123 - no, dr didn't take any swabs - just said because she had more than 2 of the sympotoms he was going to diagnose it (at the time she had all the symptoms except runny nose and cough) I was quite surprised actually since from what i'd read, I thought swabs were involved too.....don't know if it changes from area to area - like the decision as to whether to prescribe tamiflu also. I don't know whether the fact that she was so poorly on Fri pm with such a high temp also had an impact!

whomovedmychocolate - she started thursday pm and was at her worst friday evening and all night. Sat was rough too , but by yesterday she was definately improving a lot and this morning is almost back to her old (young!) self....we're still dosing her up to keep the temp down though - so all in all didn't last too long, but was a v scary 12-18 hrs......i've heard from others, whose DC have had it, that after 3 days there's a marked improvement, so she seems to be following that timescale.

Thanks for that Forbes, glad she is on the mend.

acebaby - Think they're saving the liquid for under ones as its in limited supply.

Dd4 is 6 and on the liquid, I am really supprised they gave capsules for a 2 year old. It does taste foul though, dd4 hates it

We got given capsules for our 1 year old as they've run out of liquid locally. DS would not drink tamiflu in his bottle, detected it in mushed banana and in cottage pie and refused it. Then this afternoon, I just gave him a capsule and he popped it right in!

Was a bit worried I was sending the wrong message about eating pills, though.

Tablets go down better with a fizzy drink. I know its not ideal to give a LO lemonade but if it does the job its not the end of the world.

Hope babes gets better soon.