experienced medicine givers...please help

[Jaynee]

Hi everyone. Dd is 2 and 9 months and for about 18 months giving medicine has been a huge issue. Started after a series of things ( ear infection, urine infection and chickenpox)I cannot even get calpol or nurofen into her. With a spoon it's a battle which ends with medicine everywhere and her screaming and when I try and force her she vomits straight away ( which she can do on demand!) This week she has had tonsilitus and i've been unable to give her the antibiotics, doctor and h.visitor unhelpful and have just said she'll have to put up with it then!! Any helpful hints or ideas please...desperate. (Oh, but she doesn't mind suppositries and actually laughs....weird!)

Do they do calpol suppositries?? Doctor and health visitor sound very unhelpful. DD a few months younger and still loves sucking/bottles and will (usually) happily suck calpol from a syringe. Forcing obviously doesn't work if your dd has learnt the vommitting trick. What about deception? Syrup/honey/jam/chocolate spread with antibiotics? I know it sounds very unhealthy as well as morally suspect, but dd needed a lot of rather nasty medicine when younger and I tried everything from force to soaking garlic croutons in particularly nasty medicine. She still loves garlic croutons.!

calpol is so pink and sweet that a spoonful in their yoghurt usu goes undetected chez badger...

Does she have a dummy? You get dummys to squirt medicine in with - may con her a couple of times. I have to pin my DS down in my arms to get medicine in but he hasn't leart the sick trick yet. Sorry I cant help more hope some has more sugestions for you.

You can get paracetamol suppositories - might need GP to prescribe first lot as I think some pharmacists are a bit wobbly about selling them for young children. Much more effective then oral btw!

Have you tried using a syringe? If you hold her firmly (might not b easy though) and squirt slowly towards the back of her cheek, then blow on her face to make her swallow. Followed quickly by a treat eg choc button.

Failing that, have you tried pure bribery? She's old enough to understand and once she realises that the medicine is (sort of) ok, it might be easier next time. Also, make sure you ask for meds NOT to be sugar free if poss as the artificial sweeteners are what taste so foul.

Ds1 is 7 and just been on banana flavoured penicillin which he said was disgusting. He would suck a sweet while he had a spoonful of penicillin - and actually made the same sweet last nearly the whole week .

I would keep going with bribery for your dd - can she be tempted with sweets, or earn a comic for a day's worth of medicine?

I also wonder if she's too young for a bit of, well, psychology? I'm guessing wildly here, but it sounds like she's rejecting the medicine as her way of taking control over her illness. I wonder if it's possible to find a sympathetic professional who could talk through with her how she feels when she's ill, how she feels when you give her medicine, maybe explain that her dolls and teddies need medicine when they are poorly too?!