How to get 2 year old to take tablets

[jadedinsomniac]

So 2 year old has scarlet fever. There are no liquid antibiotics in my area and it could be another 4 days but that's not even a guarantee so they've given us tablets
Not allowed to crush them
I've got to stick them on her tongue and give her a drink. All she does is gag and spit them out.
I'm sorta at a loss really
Any suggestions?

She's had her first meal in 3 days. She's very croaky and absolutely shattered. I'm going to write a complaint when I'm home. She's eaten her cereal and then fell back.
There is a shortage: all well and good the government saying there isn't but I wouldn't be here right now if there wasn't. She probably wouldn't have liked the liquid but I could have got it into her somehow

Glad your DD has been admitted OP, hopefully she will be on the mend soon. Giving a 2 year old tablets seems absolutely mad to me. I found it hard enough to get liquid antibiotics into my DS when he was a toddler - he didn’t like the taste and would clamp his mouth shut.

He’s now 6 and had to have a course of tablet medication last summer - we just about managed it with a lot of fuss. No way could he have done it at 2. For info, the best method we found in the end (went through LOTS of trial and error!) was putting the tablet in far back on his tongue, then getting him to tip his head back and gargle water. He thought it was fun and then the tablet would be so far back in his throat that he’d swallow it after the gargle.

I really wouldn't complain about the GP as this is the advice they have been given to follow. Obviously it's not ideal but if there is no alternative what could they do? They can't send everyone to hospital for IV antibiotics. They should have explained that you can crush the tablet or disperse it in water (as explained in links above). The crushed powder can be mixed in with a strong cordial or jam/Nutella etc or disperse the tablet in water and give via an oral syringe.

But the GP didn’t mention recent guidance says it’s ok to crush the tablets and give - they just told OP to ‘make’ their child swallow the tablets.

That absolutely needs to be complained about - absolutely no alternative for what if a 2year old doesn’t manage to despite having confirmed infection. What is the parent to do then? No call back arranged or alternative antibiotic suggested. And it’s not a single dose - 4 doses each day for 10 consecutive days. Even with success for a dose, it would have been very traumatic as OP described

The GP has unfortunately caused the entire situation by not passing on the most up to date guidance on crushing the tablets and by not realising that a two year old can’t swallow tablets. Possibly there would have been no need for a hospital admission if the antibiotics could have been started earlier, avoiding distress plus a huge cost to the NHS.
You don’t report someone in this situation to get them rapped over the knuckles, it’s to identify a genuine training need. The same doctor will likely see another toddler whose antibiotics are out of stock this week and needs to give correct advice.

Agree with the need to complain. It's really important that the GP, the pharmacist who dispensed it, and the pharmacist who gave the incredibly bizarre advice about splitting but not crushing are all aware that their failure to read current advice about a well-publicised issue (and there was an official communication to clinicians on Friday too) has had a negative effect on a patient.

They are all extraordinarily busy and pressured, and I have great sympathy for that, but this is a learning point that they need to take. They can use it as evidence for their Continuing Professional Development.

I know the NHS is struggling and facing an awful lot of pressure. I don't want to get anyone in trouble at all but the GP and the pharmacist at the same doctors told me my daughter would take these tablets and that they were not to be crushed in any way, just segmented. Even the doctor at a and e said they can be crushed and was confused when I said I hadn't even tried.
We are still at the hospital as her temperature is not going down and what could have been easily treated at home with cuddles and medicine is now in a ward costing the NHS money and resources.

I physically couldn't do this to her 4 times a day. Screaming at the sight of a cup, sobbing when she gags again and coughing when it touches her mouth. I know she needed the medicine but at that point I couldn't do it anymore.
I know I'm venting and rambling but over the last 2 days as it's clear she's slowly getting better I'm getting more and more pissed off at the situation

I don’t think you ever could have got her to take them successfully. I tried this summer with my nearly five year old as a medicine she takes long term tastes bad so she wanted to try the tablet form. She was very willing and cooperative, understood the issue, and tried and tried with a quarter tablet but just couldn’t do it, and it hurt to try after a bit. I can’t see a two year old ever managing it.

My mom used to put tablet in a spoon and dissolve with some water and give it to me when I was a kid. I am 33 years old with good health. I have an 18 month old, i will do the same if i ever have to.

@Theeasypeasywoman there’s lots of tablets it’s not appropriate to do that with as they need to break down in the stomach to release the active ingredient properly

We got home this morning with a 6 day dose of tablet antibiotics which we have been assured we can crush,

Good news OP! I hope your daughter is feeling better.

Is the guidance saying you can crush them now? My god daughter is aged 1 with strep A and has been given tablets. Zero liquid anywhere.

Yes as posted upthread. www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/using-solid-oral-dosage-form-antibiotics-in-children/