Medicine refusing 2 year old

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So I am just after some desperate advice. My son is just under 2 1/2 years old. He is such a wonderful little boy, he is slightly behind on his communication and speech however. I'm just mentioning this in case it changes any suggestions that might come my way.

The issue that I have though is that he refuses to take any form of medicine including Calpol. Trust me I have tried absolutely everything. I've tried it in food, I've tried it and a spoon, tried in his food/drink , I tried pinning down, I've even had to resort to using Calpol suppositories as an emergency when he's really unwell.
A couple weeks ago he had tonsillitis and he had to have antibiotics. There was absolutely no way of us getting the medicine in him without pain in him down quite forcefully. He's absolutely traumatised buy it all and now whenever he even sees a syringe he's absolutely hysterical. I'm in no way exaggerating any of this. It is an absolute nightmare.

I just really don't know what to do. He is a little bit rundown at the moment and has a temperature. I don't think at the moment it's anything of big concern, possibly just something viral, however I can already tell that he is feeling rundown and would benefit from calpol but I cannot get any calpol in him e at all. I do have some suppositories left, but I was saving them for an emergency however I might use one before bed tonight. I'm just feeling so down with all of this. I'm thinking about the winter we have in front of us and the fact he is now in nursery not had chickenpox and all the illnesses he's probably going to get over the next six months and how challenging it's going to be when he won't take Calpol. The issue is as well is that when he does get a temperature he goes off his food completely. I'm lucky because he still breastfeed so I know that he is still getting nutrition and fluids but disguising in food or drink is just impossible.

I'm just wondering if anyone has been here before? And if so do you have any advice? Like I said at the beginning he does have a communication delay so he's not quite at the age where I can bribe him or explain to him because he doesn't really understand otherwise I would be all over that!!

Somebody did suggest using the Calpol in the powder form and sprinkling it in his mouth like Teven gel. But when I read the back of the sashay says you need to mix it with water so that obviously wouldn't work.....

I’m afraid I used to take the tough approach. DH and I would hold him down and squirt that calpol in and make sure he swallows it. Would you let him avoid his vaccinations because he gets upset? If you can’t do it surreptitiously then there is no alternative to the tough direct way. Do it quickly and have big cuddles afterwards.

@Maray1967 trust me I have tried this approach. I would not feel comfortable apply any more force then I already do. I literally can't do it any more. Even in hospital it room 4 staff members to try and they eventually gave up and have him a suppository.

Just buy suppositories or get GP to prescribe them. It's not worth the stress if you have a kid who hates calpol.

I had one of them. We used to get anyone we knew travelling to Spain/canaries to stock up on Paracetamol junior suppositories for us as they're mega cheap over the counter!! In the meantime, get them prescribed. My other suggestion is use the sugar Calpol instead of the sugar free one, our daughter eventually tolerated that one. I believe she was already ok with meds by 2 tho.

Suppositories work well and are good if it is paracetamol that is needed. If it is any other medicine eg antibiotics I am afraid that you have no option but to pin him down and gradually syringe it in to the back of his cheek.

Have seen videos where there are 2 adults, one sits behind him with the medicine, the other approaches slowly with something he loves like chocolate mousse then at the last moment adult 2 pops the calpol into his open mouth. Worth a try?

Calpol fast melt. Break in half and it's the dose for his age. Crush it and mix with strawberry yogurt or tip into his mouth directly.

Fast melts are ace. Ive seen children go from whaling in pain to zooming round the room in minutes - just like the advert!

Don't treat temperatures though, that's the body working well.

I think the guidance is to treat temperatures if they're distressed. My 1 year old gets high fevers that cause him to throw up I try to keep it at bay with Calpol. But if they're not distressed I agree it's unnecessary.

I've never heard of the fast melts! Sound like a solution as I also struggle a lot with getting Calpol in. I found sugar free better but no idea if that's just a coincidence with being a little better at accepting it.

My 3 year old has been like your son, OP. The only way I could get antibiotics in him was by bribing him with ice cream. Literally syringing it into his mouth as he took a spoonful of ice cream. Things have improved recently and he has started to accept calpol without bribery. It took a lot of work but we watched Get Well Soon on iplayer a lot and told him that Dr. Ranj said to have it. Good luck xx

My 3 year old is similar, refused to even take calpol, the one time we tried mixing it with juice she then refused to drink ANYTHING for the next 6 hours. It took 3 nurses in hospital to get some medicine into her when she was extremely poorly lately and she needed antibiotics. Some advice I've been given is:
Use half a dose of the 6+ calpol - it's less to take (this was advice from a doctor but not 'official advice' obviously, and i would give less than half for a 2 year old)
Use smaller syringes - the 3ml syringes are much easier to aim into the space between the gum and cheek, makes it harder to spit out.
Tilt them back and blow in their face as you are administering the medicine to get them to swallow.
I've also found immediately offering juice after the medicine to take the taste away means she's swallowing the medicine along with the juice.
Keep persevering I know it's awful, I really thought my 3 year old would have to be admitted for an IV because of how bad she is with medicine but thankfully it didn't get that far (still feels like a battle every time she needs medicine though).

The advice from the doctors was not to mix with with food and drink though because you don't want to put them off that - especially drinks as I learnt the hard way. Also only give medicine is REALLY necessary because you don't want to put them off medicine even more.

I have one of these kids too! We used to use paracetamol suppositories but after a horrendous stint of being constipated and impacted and having to have an enema, he's traumatised by that now too.
The only way I've found to get liquid medicines into him is mixing it into a small fruit yoghurt pot and making out like its a really big treat. Seems to work as long as the medicine doesn't have a foul taste. My ds is also speech delayed.... I too wondered if it was a factor that he doesnt understand that the medicine makes him better.

Tablet form, crush in a tablet crusher and mix into melted chocolate.

I went though alllll of this with my child with critical asthma and had to take oral steroids and antibiotics for six months for the winter months. I battled it out. Got nowhere. I followed the nurses lead, find a way to just get it into them. Forcibly if necessary. Different ways to hold them down.

In our case it didn't work. One day after myself and child were left traumatised after she was forced medicine (but spat it all out in the end) when the nurse left I asked what could I do to help her. Dd said "coke".

It was the foul taste. I cracked it. A small glass of coke. One sip to know what's coming (yum). Take yukky medicine and quickly get the coke.

Yes it's them drinking coke. It bloody worked and now, if I've no soft drinks (I only buy them if they are taking medicine) they are ok now as the mental trauma is gone.

My other child has been taking medicine daily since 11 days old. I really feel your pain. Sometimes the answer is the simple one. And what works for a while won't always work. He now takes his tablet whole!

A treat immediately before and after to take the taste away is a good suggestion - as is trying other flavours/versions. Calpol isn't the be all and end all! And as others have said the 6+ is fine - it's just a higher proportion of paracetamol - 250mg in 5ml, compared to 120mg in 5ml for infant version, you just adjust the dose accordingly. But you can get all sorts of others that are orange or cherry flavour.

If they can be negotiated with - what is the most high value thing going for them? Chocolate buttons? Playing a game on your phone? Being allowed to do that naughty thing you usually tell them not to? Sticker chart where after a couple of days they can earn the noisy plastic toy they really want? Down and dirty bribery: let mummy squirt the medicine into their mouth, quick drink to take the taste away, then straight away reward.