toddler refusing medicine...

[bea]

posting on behalf of a friend whose ds has just had a bad case of cellulitis (viral infection thing where his face swelled up horribley.... had to spend a couple of days in hospital! )

anyway, he's 14 months and now on antibiotics... but he's absolutely refusing to take them... he was persueded for a while when it was put in a spoonful of joghirt... but now there's point blank refusal...

she's really worried... any suggestions to make a toddler take his medicine???

tia!

oops.. that's supposed to say 'yoghurt'

You can get a plastic syringe from the chemist and, while holding him firmly, just sort of force it in when he is crying in refusal and has his mouth open or at the corner of his mouth if clamped shut. Direct the syringe towards the inside of the cheek and the medicine is less likely to come straight out. Have a towel or something handy to mop up the excess. It sounds a bit mean to force feed him but if it's the only way, you have to! I have had to do this with my ds in the past and he's forgiven me!

We use the plastic syringe for ds2 (19mths) but he's just getting to the stage of spitting it back out again. Until then it was great. With ds1 we just hide it in drinks.

bribe with sweets if old enough.

I'm with Enid - dangle some chocolate buttons in front of him and tell him he can have a couple if he takes his medicine. Its suprising what they understand at 14 months.

oh this brings back some memories. ds1 (now 5) was on long term antibiotics and when he turned 2, he suddenly decided enough was enough and refused his daily dose. So we tried everything, from mixing it with some juice, yoghurt etc etc and ended up letting him scream, which meant he opened his mouth wide, lay him down flat and squirting it in his mouth (the syringes were a godsend). Now he takes any kind of medicine no probs.

hold his nose while he is swallowing, have a drink of milk ready to wash it down with, and a bribe such as a square of chocolate