Toddler will NOT take calpol - please help

[Motherof1and2dogs]

This has been an ongoing issue forever, he gets ill almost every month from going nursery and gets quite bad, high temperature or hot, doesn’t sleep, doesn’t eat, very whiny, crying, always touching his ear so I assume ear ache, very runny/ blocked nose, just cannot settle. He doesn’t talk yet either so it’s frustrating he cannot tell me what is wrong.

He won’t take calpol, he sees it and freaks out, I refuse to pin him down, it makes him so hot and red and cry, it’s like torture, I’ve tried it in his bottle but he won’t drink, I’ve tried it on a spoon, in a yogurt but he won’t eat, I am literally running out of ideas!

Has anyone got any tips on what I can do and if they have been through the same?
I have never known a child to hate calpol so much. I used to love taking it as a child. I get very frustrated because it will make him better but he doesn’t understand that.

I have this child, at 12 still won’t take any medication.
mix it into a yoghurt or smoothie

How old is he? If above about 18mo-2yo, I'd use bribes, eg a bit of ice cream for after. If below that age, then sorry to say, I'd use a combination of distraction and brute force. But only if he actually needs it. A slight temperature generally doesn't need calpol.

If he has an ear infection he'd need antibiotics, you can go straight to a pharmacist to get that checked out.

Just seen you mentioned a bottle so I assume younger than 18mo.

Combination of distraction and brute force: tickle him or blow raspberries on belly etc. Have syringe ready. When he's laughing then go in there and squirt a bit into side of mouth (you have to be quick). Say a silly sing-song voice "raspberry raspberry calpol!!" Or something like that.

He won't fall for it the second time hence a bit of force required, but by the end of the dose he won't mind it too much.

Works best with two people if your dh is available.

My South African mate used suppositries - so much easier if they are still in nappies.
https://www.mypharmacy.co.uk/product/alvedon-suppositories-10/?attribute_pa_strength=120mg&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAC9Eqjs7hb9xQiSzVBP76pZauLnT8&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlMfABhCWARIsADGXdy9h9gALzLm-4c0Tan5cKFI_q1ImZIEd7MWDpF9P6fK0AKFLHY95fbIaAiufEALw_wcB

It’s hard to find but there’s an orange flavour one, you could try that in some juice?

I've had the same with my DD on and off. We only use the version which has added sugar and colour now, which I get from an online pharmacy. If she needs any other medicine I mix it with chocolate ice cream. We tried pinning her down initially and forcing her but so much came back out, you have no idea how much she had so can't give any more. It was also very upsetting for all of us trying to force her.

What about the tablet one? I know it's for older children, but you could give him half a tablet. They look like a sweet and taste like a sweet and can be chewed or sucked. You could also crumble it into a yoghurt etc and there would be less volume. Before anyone jumps on a bandwagon about over dosing, this was recommended to me by a doctor as one of my DC was a medicine refuser.

Paracetamol suppositories. My littlest one won’t take calpol but he will have the suppositories, it’s far quicker and doesn’t actually seem to bother him. Distraction (e.g. tele!) is easier if you’re not at the front trying to administer it!

My son was the same, even if we managed to get it into him he used to vomit every signal time. Dr prescribed suppositories in the end which worked like a charm. By 4 he could tolerate liquid paracetamol, we used the 6+ stuff at that point as he only needed a tiny amount as opposed to 2 full syringes of regular calpol. Always used them on my second DC too, suppositories are ‘normal treatment’ in many European countries, so we just used to stock up when abroad.

My now 20 year old was the same. When I did get it into him he would immediately vomit it back up. I introduced him to tablets really early (broke a single paracetamol in half from memory - but you can get pill cutters for the correct dose) and gave with yoghurt. You could also try the dissolvable ones in juice - just get advice on the correct dose - I worked it out from reading the calpol dose but my son was slightly older when I introduced pills.

My eldest son wouldn’t take pills so had to go the other way with him and give loads of calpol as he got older!

@RobinHeartella he is 2 and 7 months, sorry I should have mentioned his age. He has milk in a beaker but I just call it bottle, same with any water or squash, we just call it a bottle out of habit and what he knows.
I do have suspicions he might be on the spectrum, we always have done from quite young, I wonder if that could be something to do with it. He is very particular and very fussy.

I think the pain of his ear is what is causing the problem, he gets bad ears every time he is ill, he puts his fingers in them, rubs them, scrunches up his neck so I assume it’s sore ears. I just feel so useless and I wish he could understand calpol will help him feel a bit better :( I have a baby on the way, 29 weeks pregnant and I am petrified to go through all this again x

Yep, suppositories. My child down right refused calpol and that was a simple, very effective solution. Taa-daa

Suppositories are your friend here. Any French / Belgian pharmacy will sell them over the counter.

Yes we have had this until recently. My daughter still has a bottle of milk at bedtime (2). We’d pop it in the milk. For amoxicillin in a petis filous,
she’d then get the calpol syringe and play with her dolly’s to give them medicine (calpol locked away). Long story short she will now sometimes take calpol I think the role play helped with her dolly’s

My DS outright refused any oral meds as a younger baby, seemed to hate the taste. Would get so distressed, screaming and clamping his mouth shut. If I got any into his mouth he'd almost choke on it. So if he was unwell or got a temp I'd use suppositories. The thought of them are worse than the actual use. They're not bad, he wouldn't even flinch.
Weirdly something changed somewhere along the line and he started accepting oral meds but I always have suppositories on standby. Also great if they have a vomiting bug and temp.

Chocolate button after. Button in one hand spoon in the other. Every time he goes for the button, offer the spoon and tell him in simple terms that it’s medicine first, then button. Camp out with him in one room with the door shut until he takes the medicine. Don’t pin him down, don’t chase him around the house. At other times get a kids doctors set and play lots of role play of teddies being sick and having spoons of medicine. My son’s doctor’s set has a washed out bottle of calpol with no lid on, a few medicine spoons and a few of those syringes that come with the calpol.

I have the same. It’s hard. We just let him have the temperature and go without tbh. Forcing it in makes him sick from fighting it.

Hes a fantastic eater and will eat anything, apart from yoghurt, ice cream or anything wet. So we can even mix it in with stuff.

Ask your GP to prescribe suppositories. My 6 months baby has the same problem with calpol and I asked the GP to prescribe this as you can’t buy them over the counter. It was the best thing ever and the little baby didn’t even flinch. The pills are tiny.

Can you make it seem like it's his idea? Like asking him to help you put the calpol in the syringe, and if he can do that then can he feed it to himself? My toddler loves being asked to do things by herself.

My DS when younger hated calpol but was fine with our pharmacy’s own brand cheaper cherry flavour paracetamol. So strange! Could be worth trying different flavours/brands if you haven’t already.

Suppository. Pity antibiotics don’t come in that form too.

Failing that try wrapping them up in a towel or blanket, distract them and syringe it in. All the best.

Practice with squash when they are well practice on teddy buy a doll that you pretend to feed ect

Plus get their ears looked at my son had repeat glue ear it cleared eventually but affected his speech badly at one point

DD used to be like this, I read somewhere about letting them put sprinkles on the medicine when it's on the spoon then they get to eat the sprinkles with the medicine, worked a treat.

If the OP won't pin him down then I doubt she's going to want to stick something up his bum.

Same as teeth brushing, wrap them up and let them scream. The wider the mouth the better.

You need to hold him legs under yours arms back your arm around head and syringe in.
If he really needs medication you will need to find a way