Lost it at 3 year old for constantly refusing antibiotics

[mylittlemonkys]

Hey,
So as I type this im actually crying my eyes out with mum guilt and shame. My DD has tonsillitis and was prescribed antibiotics by the doctor. She took these for 7 days but on the 7th day she started getting a fever again. I took her back to the doctors who said she still had puss on one of the tonsils so prescribed her with different antibiotics. When it came to getting my DD to take them she out right refused after the first taste. My DD is extremely strong willed and I tried everything in the book to get her to take these antibiotics, absolutely nothing worked. So I called the dr back and explained and they said they would put her back on the first antibiotics for another 7 days (as she took those with no problems)
We have come back this afternoon and I managed to get her to take the first does so thought great! But tonight she's back to refusing to take them even though she has had them before and took them this afternoon. Again husband and I tried everything to get her to take them. It got to the point where I lost my temper, really shouted at her, made her cry more then she already was, slammed her door and continued to shout my frustrations outside the door. I feel sick with guilt and feel like the worst mum. I can't bare that I snapped at her like that. I'm laying next her her now while she sleeps feeling like an unfit mum!

Thank you all for your replies, you really have haloed me feel better about shouting at her.

So I date on the antibiotics situation. She is still refusing to take them by herself either by spoon or syringe. I spoke to the doctors again today to explain the situation. He said to try again and if she really won't take them it's better to just stop them as she does seem to be getting a bit better everyday and I cannot see any puss on the tonsils. Also her temp has been pretty consistent today and only raise to 37.7 as the highest. So me being me I still tried to get her to take them. This morning I had to hold her down, they went in then she threw everything up. She's not eating a lot as it is so not great that she's then emptied her stomach of food and water. I tried again this afternoon same method and she managed to keep it down. Then just now 3rd does same thing help her down, she was more willing this time but not totally then again threw everything up she had eaten or drank and meds included.

WHAT DO I DO???
Do I loathe to the doctors and stop them and see how she is in a few days? DH thinks I should, or should I keep trying risking her having no food or drink inside her? Please help me I'm at a total loss xxx

If the doctor says it’s safe to stop taking them I’d do that. Probably better she just doesn’t have them than having bits of doses as that gives the infection more chance to learn how to override the antibiotics.

My DD gets ear infections all the time and they only give us antibiotics if it’s severe as they say it’s fine to leave her body to do it’s job if she can overcome it herself. So don’t feel bad for stopping the antibiotics OP! The doctor wouldn’t have okayed it if he thought she wouldn’t cope. Hopefully in another couple of days she will be bouncing around again.

Is it flucloxacillin? It tastes vile and is impossible to hide.

Wrap them in a towel very tightly (like a swaddle) this is SO much easier and safer than pinning them down.
Lie them down.
If there's two of you then one of you holds head still.
Squirt medicine in the side of their cheek.
Do it all as quickly as possible.
Treat/sticker immediately afterwards

If she keeps throwing them up then they do a capsule form (depends what dose she's on though). You can open the capsule and sprinkle it on a spoon of yoghurt or mix with hundreds and thousands.

We went through this with my then 3 year old. It would take 45 minutes 3 times a day to give him his antibiotics, we tried every trick/bribe in the book and each time ended up forcing it in. 50% of the time it would come back up and we would have to start again.

Anyway, what FINALLY worked for us was putting the medicine in a syringe, coating the outside of the syringe with yogurt, then putting the syringe in the side of his mouth and squeezing it to the back. This stopped any medicine on the outside of the syringe touching his tongue or side of his mouth.

With flucloxacillin and clarythromycin (both of which, unfortunately, DS2 has to take a lot due to an underlying health condition) the only way we can get them into him is to mix it into Nutella and spread it on toast. Something about having to chew and swallow the toast seems to make it go down that much easier. It also means he's at least eating something and can pick at it slowly if need be.

My sympathies - I have had to pin/force him for so many procedures that I know that guilt and frustration very well!

I've been where you are many times, it's awful. I wouldn't worry to much about food if she doesn't want to eat, but ice lollies and squash are good to keep fluids up. If she seems on the mend maybe it's fine to just give up on the antibiotics?
One tip that worked foe us is to use a calpol pipette and squirt the antibiotics into those Ella's Kitchen type fruit pouches, shake it up and see if she'll slurp from those? It seemed to hide the taste quite well. Otherwise we'd squirt them in whilst she was asleep. I hope your little one feels better soon.