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& month old refusing Oral Antibiotics!

3 replies

Avoidingthehousework · 15/01/2010 14:55

Help please! My DS is 7 months old has to have daily antibiotics squirted in to his mouth each evening and at the moment most is coming straight back out again!!

He was being great about it and on some days would almost drink it out of the syringe, but on not so easy days having a bottle of milk ready to pop in his mouth would ensure he wouldn't spit it out.

For the last couple of weeks it has becoming almost a battle! He knows what the syringe looks like and even if I manage to slyly get it in the corner of his mouth whilst he drinks his bottle he shakes his head and jams his gums and lips shut. Screaming can sometimes be to my advantage (as awful as it sounds) as I can sometimes get a bit in , but then he spits it out and has learnt the bottle trick, so now prefers to not have his milk either - not so great!!

He is eating really well, can be a bit fussy about milk at the mo and has good and bad milk days and I am a bit worried that the more we have this fight over antibiotics the worse he will get about me getting anywhere near his mouth.

Sometimes I just want to accidentally drop the bottle of medicine in the bin as it makes me so sad to see him get so distressed . He will need to continue having his medicine until he is operated on at GOSH, so this could be an ongoing battle for the forseeable future.

Any ideas on how I can get him to have (and swallow) his medicine!? The doctors are so specific with his 1.4ml dose and I know most days he just isn't getting enough.
Thanks.

OP posts:
Avoidingthehousework · 15/01/2010 14:56

Opps my title should have been 7 months, not & months!!!!

OP posts:
alarkaspree · 15/01/2010 15:09

Poor you. It must be horrible.

Are you getting the syringe in the right place? It can be hard to do with a child that's fighting against it but if you squirt the medicine right in the back corner of the mouth they can't really spit it out again.

Otherwise, have you spoken to your GP about whether they are able to offer any alternative to the liquid medicine? When ds was little I used to get a friend in france to send me paracetamol suppositaries because it was so hard to get him to take liquid medicine. They are available in the UK but cost a fortune. I don't know whether it's a possibility for antibiotics but worth asking.

Avoidingthehousework · 15/01/2010 16:51

Thanks for your message! When we aren't fighting it gets in the right place anfd then does swallow it, but when he is being determind(which is most days now!) it is pot luck really! I think talking to my G.P will be the answer if we are not successful over the next few days. I can't work out why they make the medicine taste of aniseed, surely that can't help!!!!

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