How to get toddler to take vile medicine?

[Alb1]

DS is 3 in September and is a pretty stubborn little guy anyway, but we've been given a 7 day course of antibiotics that have to be taken on an empty stomach, atleast 2 hours after food or an hour before food. Which is hard enough as he's a grazer and restricting food like that is challenging, it's 4 doses a day too!

But it's absolutely vile medicine, id struggle to take it, and we are really struggling to get in into DS, this morning i managed to force him too, he spat some out but got most of it, but now he's figured that out this time he just bit down on his bottom lip making it bleed until we gave in and let him have lunch. We can't force his jaw open but I also no how important it is for him to take the medicine, has anyone got any tips?

Bribary doesn't work, he's just not interested. He will take nice tasting stuff like calpol quite happily but this he will just not go for

A medicine syringe saved our sanity. You can use the one that comes with calpol or get one from the chemist for about 50p. Aim towards the back of his cheek not straight down his throat. He should be able to swallow without really tasting it. Suckable sweet after?
Only other option is to go back to gp and ask for different medicine?

Is it the white penicillin? DD downright refused that, and no amount of forcing, reasoning or bribery would get her to take it.

Sorry.

Is it flockixacilin? Sort of neon yellow stuff.

Chocolate biscuits, a syringe and bribery worked for us.

My daughter was prescribed a weeks course of the white penicillin after an operation, we couldn't get it into her for love nor money. We had to give up (with consultants permission) after two days. Sorry, not helpful, but you're not alone!

We had the same when DS was 3. In desperation we rang the GP to ask if we could mix it with anything to get it down. She said not ideal but better than not taking it, and suggested (I will get flamed for this!) Coca-Cola. It was the only thing strong enough to hide the taste.

Ours was also a "take on an empty stomach" medication. I'd keep trying tomorrow and if all else fails ring the pharmacist / GP first suggtions on Monday.

*for suggestions

Syringe as above and no negotiating

I don't think you can really at this age. Even mixed into squash it still tastes so awful. I only got one full dose down my DD when she had flucloxicillin 4 years ago, everything else went on the floor, on me, down the sink in a glass of squash etc. She was too young for bribery but too old to just squirt it at the back of her throat. You may be able to get the doctor to prescribe a nicer tasting alternative.

Try giving mixed with a teaspoon of applesauce. Failing that, hold down, head lock, squirt medicine in. Needs must unfortunately.

With DS (2) I wrapped him in a towel to pin his arms to his side and as PP's have suggested, used a syringe. Stick the syringe in between his teeth, and aim for the back of his cheek. I kept the syringe between his teeth until I knew he'd swallowed it otherwise he would spit it out again. At times I would have to kneel over his chest to make him stay still. there's a fine line between administering antibiotics and child abuse

Ugh, so difficult. Tried the following with DD and managed to get some in: medicine mixed into a spoon of jam, spoon of honey, pot of desert. Basically anything sweet that she does not normally have. Much spitting & puking. Good luck 🍀

Set it into jelly, stir into yoghurt, freeze into homemade lollies, mix into bedtime porridge.

Thank you everyone, I have now tried these and ended up wearing the medicine every time. He even agrees to some of my bribes, but still ended up crying and spitting it out as it was too horrible. I went to the pharmacist yesterday and asked for advice and they had none so il take him back to the doctor tomorrow to ask for a different one

Use a spoon - push the spoon gently for a few seconds on their tongue - they have to swallow - try it on yourself it s a reflex action

Ds got one of his chicken pox infected and the doctor apologised when writing up the prescription as he said meds for skin stuff are the absolute worst. Wonder if yours is the same?

It's pin down and force it into the cheek here unfortunately- ds was 4 and took it nicely by the end if the week (with a chocolate bribe!) Good luck

If your child is sick enough to need antibiotics then it is a question of needs must as a pp said... of course they are disgusting ( apart from amoxicillin ) . I do sympathise because it is horrible pinning a screaming child down ... we've all been there .

We used to mix with peanut butter or Nutella when ours were little. Peanut butter seemed to work best.

I have been pinning him down but he bites down on his bottom lips so I can't get the medicine in, and if I manage to fire it in he spits it out so it's that bit that I can't get round

I rang the doctor and said DS wasn't tolerating the medicine and the GP prescribed a different nicer one. All medicines are gross but there are a couple that are even worse than normal, and there can be a couple of choices that do the job. The gp said something along the lines of 'it's a particularly foul one, most kids can't take it but it's cheap so we try it first'
the second antibiotic was fine. Not nice but a quick swig of squash was enough.

I think we have had just had the same medicine for DD for an infected foot caused by chickenpox. Is it neon pink?

It was vile and the only way we could get her to take it was in chocolate milkshake. She hadn't been eating much so didn't feel too guilty about the chocolate milkshake considering she needed the calories.

My DS is the same so you have my sympathies, he gets so worked up it's actually distressing to watch.

But there's no nice way to do it unfortunately, you have to pin them, put the syringe inside their cheek and pray they don't spit it all back out.

We had some that my son would take a drop at a time... then there was much dancing round in disgust until he could face the next drop. Took maybe 10 minutes to get the whole dose down.
He was old enough to understand he HAD to have it (we might have said if he got really poorly he'd have to go to hospital without us).. so we scared him about having to have it rather than pinning him down.
K

Smarties have the answer.

I used to bribe mine. Now they're 6 and 7 they take medicine without fuss as the know it'll make them better.

We have major progress today, since we got the medicine he has spat all of it out every time and been pinned down, medicine forced in, but today I bought skittles and giving it to him in bits and letting him have a skittle in the gaps and being patient means he's probably only spitting out about a quarter of each dose and very minimal tears. So thought I'd update cos he spit it out for days but eventually, because we carried on, he is now getting some antibiotics at last. Pretty sad he now knows what proper sweets are but it's totally worth it!

Oh and in answer to the question it's a whiteish one, fluocaxillin? It's nasty whatever it is!