Tips for getting 4 month old to swallow ranatidine?

[TheZee]

Hello, my dd is 4 months old and has been on ranatidine since about 1 month for reflux. I use a syringe to administer it. At first I could get her to swallow at least some of it by stroking her throat, then she went through a phase of swallowing it voluntarily, but now she just spits it all out. She is very fussy at feeds now and seems in occasional discomfort and so i think the pain from the reflux may be part or all of the cause of this (tho it may also be early teething and/or just getting distracted). She is ebf and won't take a bottle so i'm a bit stuck as to other ways of getting it down her.
Any ideas? Is there maybe a technique to using a syringe where if i put in a certain part of her mouth she's more likely to swallow?
Thanks.

Point towards the roof of the mouth or in the cheek. Shove the dummy / shove baby on the boob straight after. Depending on what dose she's on get the smallest syringe possible (i.e. ask the chemist for a one ml syringe. If necessary do it tiny drop by tiny drop...Fussy feeding is part of reflux, they sometimes start realising the feeding causes the pain at around 4 months and unfortunately 4 months is the worst age for reflux. Good luck.

blow on her face while administering, worked with my son the other day, makes them swallow. don't know why! also, point in along the gum to the back of the cheek/jaw. hope this helps!

Thanks that's really helpful, have just tried it and whilst she cottoned on right away and did her best to avoid it, I still managed to get her to swallow far more than before. We're seeing a specialist next week so I'm hoping he'll be able to help us minimise the reflux and it's effects as much as possible tho I know it's probably not going to go away anytime soon... Thanks again.

I had the same problem with my dd2, also ebf. We had three different medicines to give to her with each feed and it was a nightmare. The only thing that slightly helped was pointing the syringe into her cheek, and not doing too much at a time. Sorry not to be able to help more than that.

hi - I used to lie my dd across my lap with her head off my knees and then syringe it in and stroke her throat. The combination of gravity and stroking got her to swallow it all. Have to say I hated having to do it, but it did mean she got the full dose every time.

Thanks again for all the suggestions. I have now also tried the blowing on the face technique. She was not best pleased and I felt mean but it does work!

i was always told to aim it into the cheeck, which i think seemed to work. But dd was a on a tiny dose(0.27ml) so it wasn't too bad, and she just took the lot in one go. The 1ml of domperidone was a little harder, but i think she just got used to it