Baby refusing calpol

[lemondropsandchimneytops]

I'm sure there have been many similar posts on here so I apologise in advance but would appreciate tips or advice!

My 8mo will not take calpol (original or sugar free) or baby nurofen. Before we started solid foods, we could manage to get her to swallow it but she'd be very distressed. Since starting solids, she spits it straight out or she gags on it and is sick. We've tried giving it into the inside of her cheek, tried using various spoons, through the teat of a bottle and hiding it in milk and food. The food angle might be easier if she was older but there's only so much you can disguise the taste in a few spoonfuls of food.

HV has suggested suppositories so I'm trying to get our GP to prescribe them but being met with a brick wall. I get that they're expensive but to me, leaving a baby with uncontrolled temperature or pain is negligent.

Does anyone have any weird and wonderful suggestions of other ways we could try to get calpol into her? Or any suggestions of how/where we could get suppositories without the massive cost? One pack is £57 for about 2 days' worth!

We called it tasty medicine and acted like it was a huge treat. 🤷‍♀️

8 months though…. wouldn’t understand

Sympathies OP - we had similar. A few things helped but in the end it’s just been time and she’s sort of grown out of it. Things we tried that were a little bit more successful

1. doing it in the bath so that she didn’t turn into a sticky mess (but harder to hold her still)
2. a local pharmacy had an off-brand one which was cherry flavour, and she didn’t hate that quite as much
3. squeezing the tiniest drop onto a spoon and letting her do it herself. Literally a tiny squeeze at a time - takes forever but it means if she spills it, you don’t lose loads of it.
4. as above, but you control the spoon.

I used to watch other children practically drinking it, and wonder what we were doing wrong. Now she takes a full syringe in one or two goes, without fuss.

I don’t know if calpol melts are still available? Our little ones hated liquid but would suck those, broken into smaller pieces.

Why are you giving it to her? You

In a drink if necessary but shouldn't need to give often. Own brand come in different flavours.

Painful but half a ml at a time. It's not enough for them to spit out or throwback up. A nurse told me this and it was a life saver when dd would refuse it or throw it back up. She's 5 now and happily takes it.

We used suppositories. They cost a lot but it just saves a whole world of trouble. You need to get them on private prescription. You can see a private GP but there is no reason why the NHS GP shouldn't give you a private prescription. The OOH GP keeps paracetamol suppositories to hand for baby emergencies.

Now DS is older we dissolve an effervescent paracetamol in sugar free sprite and he likes that very much. He's a teen now though.

We have the same. The only way in is in a small amount of fruit puree, it's sweet enough to mask the taste! And then whenever we know someone going to Europe, we ask them to bring suppositories back, they are so cheap there xx

First time we got the suppositories was prescribed by a 111 GP. After they'd been prescribed once, my GP was ok to prescribe them. Absolute lifesaver as my first was also a medication refuser. Really don't understand why we can't get them OTC like the rest of Europe.

Why are you having to give her so much Calpol? Is she in pain that often?

My dd is now 7 and she has never taken medicine in her life.

She has been poorly enough once to get suppositories, and I do keep some in, I get them online for around £20 a box, but she point blank refuses to take medicine ever.

Over the years it's just been a case of keeping her comfortable and cool when she's ill.

Yoghurt is always a good one to hide it in. Strawberry flavour obviously

Ask the GP to prescribe cherry flavoured calpol, rather than strawberry. (All you seem to be able to buy in pharmacies and online is strawberry flavour.) Some kids have a reaction to the chemical strawberry flavour - mine consistently vomited all strawberry flavoured medicine, including when it went through his PEG (stomach tube). Hospital doc said it must be something in the flavouring and prescribed cherry - hey presto, no vomiting.

the prescription won’t prescribe a flavour! If the pharmacy has it available and the op asks for a specific flavour… they will give it!

Some of the cheap stuff is cherry flavour.

Where does it say OP is having to give “so much” ? OP says for pain or fever, not “we’re trying to give a dose before bedtime so we get a better sleep” or “we’re going on holiday and I can’t get it into my child for a peaceful flight”.

You may be right (I know hospitals are different and they can be very specific on prescriptions), but I suspect a GP can prescribe the flavour if they want to actually be helpful. If I were a GP I'd think it worth testing whether it is all medicine the child vomits up or just a specific flavour.

Thank you, that's really helpful. It's reassuring that she's grown out of it, I have visions of my girl refusing all medication if I push this too much now.

We bought a dummy shaped dispenser which did the trick.

Looked a bit like this

https://www.tradeinn.com/kidinn/en/saro-medicine-manager/138849912/p?utm_source=google_products&utm_medium=merchant&id_producte=16021554&country=uk&gad_source=4&gclid=CjwKCAjwgfm3BhBeEiwAFfxrG6UhX17u6HFWgRGJ0beCx-9dq4Es8r5iGbk7xCjJxU0DoJeSfl2m9RoC36wQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Next time you go abroad stock up on the suppositories!

The reason I asked is that if giving a baby calpol is causing stress for parent, child or both, there are lots of other things you can do to ease pain or bring down a fever-including just waiting it out. We do tend to reach for calpol automatically if we see a fever. Often it's not necessary, and the angst and stress can make things worse, not better.

Do you mean these?

https://www.calpol.co.uk/our-products/calpol-sixplus-fastmelts

Half of one of those is equivalent to 5ml of liquid... interesting 🤔

We've tried this, doing it so slowly but as soon as she swallows any she's sick. Or the other time where she looked like she'd had a bath in it 😂