Ended up in A&E last night when 17 month old DS's temperature reached 40.4c and the out-of-hours GP advised us to go. After much waiting they diagnosed an ear infection. They said it should go without antibiotics and just to give regular paracetamol and ibuprofen, which we've been trying to stagger.
The problem is getting it into him. I prefer the syringe method, DH prefers the little spoon. Either way, he just spits the stuff out. We have to wrap him in a towel and pin him to get it anywhere near him. Poor kid. In the past we've had success hiding things in yogurt, which sometimes works still, but recently he's gone off yogurt, and only ate a few spoonfuls of the calpol laced Petit filous I gave him this evening. What I hate is not really knowing how much he's had, meaning he's probably had less than the therapeutic dose but its not really safe to try and top it up.
He seemed better during the day and his temp was normal but tonight its up to 39.6c again. He's now just in a nappy and temp's down a bit. He's not due anything for a while now.
What else can I try to get the next lot into him, and make him feel better?
Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.
General health
Please help me get calpol into my toddler!
cowbiscuits · 21/02/2014 20:13
We had the same problem with both our kids...the only thing that seemed to help a little was measuring out the right dose using the spoon that came with the calpol but then using a normal teaspoon to get it into their mouth.. a bit of a faff but maybe worth a try? It was still a two person job
Can't believe someone suggested putting actual calpol up their bum 
Your gp should prescribe suppositories if you're having a nightmare, we had to battle to get them for DS after he had his tonsils out but he was so hysterical he just vomited anything we got into him orally. He was like a different child after the suppositories, I was nervous about using them but he didn't even flinch, I just did it quickly whilst changing his nappy. They do take effect quickly as well.
Hope he feels better soon. 
Our ds is a medicine refuser. We usually force feed it with a syringe 
but he often vomits or spits a lot of it out.
Last time he had tonsillitis we spoke to the pharmacist and ended up buying some Calpol 6+ meltlet thingies. Ds is only 2 so we had to use half a tablet. We mixed it with a very small amount of strawberry milk (special treat 
), and this seemed to work quite well.
Familiessharegerms often a young child / toddler can be uncooperative with taking medicine orally as they know what is coming, they have negative associations with it and can get completely hysterical, in my case that meant he would swallow the medicine when syringed but it was really traumatic for him, and he got so worked up he then vomited it back up again. The hysteria would start as soon as he saw the syringe / bottle / spoon and was too young to be talked round. He had a lot of tonsillitis and I suppose it really hurt to swallow anything at times.
With the suppositories, he didn't see them, didn't have that association, and was used to getting his nappy changed. They are very small and it takes a fraction of a second to insert, he barely noticed tbh.
Sometimes this is a lot kinder, I think it's hard to understand if you haven't been in that situation and a lot of people think that the medicine refusal is 'naughty behaviour' including the pharmacist I spoke to.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.