2yo totally refusing to swallow medicine

[WhateverHappenedToSpokeyDokeys]

DD is 2.5 and was prescribed amoxicillin yesterday for an ear infection. We have wasted several doses because she absolutely refuses to swallow it.

So far we have tried absolutely everything we can think of, or that has been recommended - being super casual, being firmer, food bribes, pretending to give medicine to her teddies, waiting til she’s distracted with the TV....then as far as the actual delivering the dose goes, we’ve tried squirting it in her cheek, using a spoon so she could do it herself, squirting it in tiny bits, letting her hold the syringe....nothing works. She fights us off, spits it out, wriggles, clenches her teeth, sticks her tongue out so it all spills out, or blows a huge raspberry so it gets sprayed everywhere.

I’m at the end of my tether trying to get it in, what else can I try? She’s feeling absolutely rotten and it’s so frustrating to waste so much medicine that could be making her better.

I used to get a spoon of yoghurt and squirt a small bit in, tepeat several tines until dose all eaten.

If she likes yoghurt/fruit puree /icecream you could try this. Don't mix whole dose into a whole bowl/ pot etc, just squirt a bit at a time on each spoonful

could you get a cup like this, put the medicine in the compartment and then fill the rest with chocolate milk?

Thank you for those suggestions! I forgot to say - she detected it in two different yoghurt flavours and refused to eat it, but we could try ice cream. I haven’t seen those dispensing cups, might be worth a try, thanks!

Milk shake is what i used tonuse tohide it in with one of mine I mixed it in a tiny glass she got interested and she drank it like a good girl 😀

Have you tried wrapping her up tipping her back and squirting it in

Bribe with sweets! It's only short term and it worked for us. I had mild success with adding food colouring and flavouring.

You lie her down, clamp her head between your knees and syringe the medicine in. That’s what we ended up having to do with DD (who at 9 have zero recollection of this episode and is actually pretty good about taking medication - she is only daily antihistamines).

She has to have it.

Antibiotics shorten the course of an ear infection by about a day- so it’s not a disaster if you give up. Will she take calpol?

We have a medicine dispenser which is a dummy with a reservoir for the meds. If she is a child who likes a dummy it may help?

Is it the banana type? She might not be able to taste it in a banana milkshake

Sweets, we let them hold the sweet in their hand, I think it helped to let them hold it so they felt some amount of control over the situation. I totally sympathy, it's rotten when they're ill, good luck

I used to wrap mine in a towel so they couldnt struggle too much, squirt it in and hold their mouth shut. Done very quickly its effective, no fuss and gets the job done. Most of MN would probably call social services on me but the faffing and fannying around just makes it worse and its important they get the meds. I never found anything could cover the taste of amoxycillin. Its bloody horrible. The kids are fine btw, 16 and 6 and are not traumatised and dont remember it.

Honestly treeplop I wouldn’t mind at all but she either still won’t have it or she doesn’t care about the bribe - she’s not as food-motivated as my older DC who is very easily persuaded by a chocolate button.

Mrsjayy I’m wondering if a thick chocolate one like Frijj would work, the medicine is meant to be banana flavoured so banana and chocolate might not be too disgusting for her....she is tricky though, it’s not so much the positioning but she manages to spray it out or hold it somewhere in her mouth before spitting it out.

@Justgivemesomepeace my friend had to do this with her premmy toddler, it was that or hospital and drips.

My eldest just barfed so my clever GP gave it to me in tablet form, crushed and mixed with black currant jam it went down that way. In fact if you crush it you can sprinkle it on just about anything.

If you squirt the medicine in down the side of their cheek and gently blow in their face at the same time they will swallow instead of spitting it back out.

Combine with the ‘feral cat wrap’ (tightly wrapped in a towel) it usually works. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, especially with antibiotics.

Bert no, we have paracetamol suppositories from the GP as she’s a serial medicine refuser/spitter/gagger. Luckily she’s mostly quite healthy so we don’t need to use them often but they’re very effective when we do.

She hasn’t had a dummy, thankyou for all the suggestions

Right. If I were you i’d give her the paracetamol to make her feel a bit better then wait it out.

It used to be that frijj but I used to pretend it was mine and she would beinterested and want some

I had this problem when DD was small. It was solved two ways as she's a fickle mare & would change her mind. Mix it with neat Ribena, which the local kids hospital told us was originally developed for medicines. Otherwise she would take it mixed with a spoonful of honey.

We also found that she was best with capsules that we could open up & mix the powder with honey or Ribena. Might be worth you speaking with your doctor to get these instead.

I put it in a small bit of lemonade. Worked a treat.

I agree with the pp who suggested "force feeding". My daughter refused to take her antibiotics when she was 4 - I tried a bit to make her swallow it voluntarily, but it didn't work, so I thought it's better to do it quickly with physical force, rather than having a hassle about it twice a day for several days.

I'd bend her head back, squeeze her mouth open (or hold her nose until she opens her mouth) and pour the antibiotics in. It landed rather far back in her mouth, close to the throat, so spitting out would have been quite hard.

I wouldn’t force feed like that if it only meant shortening the illness by 1 day.Lots of nursing and painkillers and wait it out.

We find amoxocillin mixes well with toffee yoghurt.

"I wouldn’t force feed like that if it only meant shortening the illness by 1 day.Lots of nursing and painkillers and wait it out."

Doctors usually don't prescribe antibiotics for fun, but because it's necessary.

“Doctors usually don't prescribe antibiotics for fun, but because it's necessary.“
Not strictly true when it comes to ear infections. Research says rgt antibiotics typically reduce the length of an ear infection by 1 day. Which of course you would want to do. But if it’s causing huge amounts of stress and upset it’s a judgement call in my opinion.