How are you supposed to give a toddler medicine 4 times a day on an empty stomach?

[dontpointatme]

She doesn't have an empty stomach 4 times a day!! She is 2.7 and pretty much eats all day long. It's flucloxacillin for a skin infection so it's not like she's off her food. Will it still work if her stomach isn't really empty??

maybe 10 mins before each. meal...not sure really can you speak to the pharmacist to clarify.

Morning before breakfast afternoon before lunch before her tea and maybe in the evening before bed

Yes we struggled with this recently too. It was supposed to be an hour before food or 2hrs after. So we did 6.45am ish (or whenever she woke) then tried to stretch out breakfast, then snack at 10, medicine at 1130, lunch 1230, medicine 3.30, no afternoon snack, tea 5pm, medicine 6.45pm. And then breastfeed to sleep. So failed to follow instructions. But it seemed to work. Not a medical professional!

Thanks @Orangedaisy that's what ours says too, an hour before or two hours after. There's not that much time in the day is there!! 🤦🏼‍♀️

We ended up giving a dose in the middle of the night...

I've asked a gp this question recently, she said it was more important to give it at regular intervals than on an empty stomach 🤷‍♀️

I had this issue recently with my 5 yr old (not exactly the same antibiotic, but same instructions). I have a friend who is a pediatrician and she said the same as Zigzag that regular intervals is much more important than empty stomach.

I thinkthe empty stomach thing is Antibiotics can make you feel sick as others have said as long as she is getting them regularly ,

It's because you are supposed to give them at regular intervals so if 3 times a day every 8 hours, 4 times a day every 6 hours. It does
Mean getting up and giving them a dose on the night but that's the correct way to give them not squeeze them all into 12 hours

My DD had this a few months ago and it was so foul tasting there was no way we were getting I her without mixing with something so she had it with yoghurt, the gp had warned me beforehand and said it was more important that she got it than how it went in.

God, I have no chance of getting it in to her at night, she won't even take the likes of cough medicine or calpol through the night, she screams and gets herself so upset when she's tired. I'll space it over the 11/13 hours she's up as evenly as I can. Thanks for the advice all.

I've just finished a course of flucloxicilin.

The empty stomach thing is really important - it's so they get absorbed into the bloodstream properly.

No tips as I'm not a toddler but the leaflet does say 30-60 mins before food so that extra 30mins may help

Oh Christ, I had this for my little boy when he had an infected toenail aged about 4 months. It was like some kind of ridiculous riddle - had to be given something like no sooner than 3 hrs after a meal, or later than 2 hours before a meal. He was 4 months old, he was FF every 3-4 hours!

I think in the end I gave it exactly inbetween the meals, so it was as far away as it possibly could be from any food.

I was so tired. My brain hurt so much...