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 had this with my son. Absolutely nothing would work!
I had to use suppositories which were out on prescription by the GP (after begging them!!!!).
When he got a bit older and we could talk about it he will now take it.
It wasn't a pleasant experience using the sepositories as you can imagine, but it was the only thing that worked.

Yes the orange flavoured one is your friend here or sometimes even better pharmacies own brands do other flavours to and cheaper then actual calpol. The trick is to squeeze it into the cheek space a bit at a time and yes I would hold DS, I think sometimes it's more important that they get their medication.

I used paracetamol suppositories. So less stressful for all concerned .

My autistic son will take Calpol but only if you put it on his hand and he licks it off. Once he was able to tell us that all was solved. He hates having a syringe or spoon put in his mouth.

Forcing in my experience just builds a medicine aversion. Unless it’s absolutely essential and Calpol is not I’d not be using the pin them down method. I have an 8yo with a needle phobia from that approach.

Both my DDs hated calpol and any other meds. DD1 had antibiotics once & we tried yoghurt, ice cream, drinks, she wasn’t fooled. Eventually we had to hold her down & ever since then she was fine!

DD2 was about 9 (and happy to have call ppl) when she had a virus, vomiting and couldn’t keep anything down (so calpol was pointless) but with a really terrible headache. Called 111 in the hope they would prescribe suppositories, made me feel like I was a freak for even thinking about it, so hopefully your local health people will be more sympathetic!

People saying you can get them OTC in France or Belgium may be right but that’s not much help!

Has he ever tasted it? Wondered if it was the taste or fear of the unknown. If its the taste, buy the original form as it tastes much nicer than the sugar free. Not ideal for teeth but may get him over the fear.

Do it while he's asleep with a syringe, point it at the inside of his cheek and just dribble a bit at a time and he will swallow it. We had to give dd vile tasting meds as a baby and this was far nicer than pinning her down ( a nurse showed us how to do it).

Our lovely pharmacist made us up a bottle of banana flavour and one of pineapple flavour for DD1. She was on prednisolone for a while and it was the pink of the calpol that freaked her out as it was the same colour as the vile steroids.

If still in nappies you do it during a nappy changes takes less than 10 secs. When I wrote this I thought he was a bit younger....

That’s a terrible advice. To stress the child even more than he is already stressed.
Our baby for example vomits immediately after calpol. I can’t imagine pinning your child down would help with that.

@gamerchickthe difference is he can’t spit it out or vomit it back up. And it’s way less traumatic!

You can buy them online using popular french pharmacy websites. Our GP was fine prescribing them but said they are often only held in pharmacies located in areas with a higher rates of foreign nationals (as they all use them!).

Before they invented Calpol, my mum used to grind up half an asprin and mix it in cocoa.

You could try the same with half a paracetamol tablet.

Often they associate the flavour with vomiting or feeling bad (because that’s when they took it) so a different flavoured paracetamol suspension from the pharmacy is fine. Ours would take the cherry or the orange but not calpol.

@Motherof1and2dogs Can you mix it into some juice or fruity yoghurt and then freeze them as mini ice lolly moulds? X

Toddler medicine syringe. Back of the cheek on one side. They have to swallow it. There aren’t many things I’d deal with by manhandling but needed calpol is one of them.

This is what we were shown in hospital- worked a treat after the previous nurse made us restrain DS (which was really fucking traumatic) - they just gave him the syringe and he did it happily!

My DD is a similar age and loves to feed it to herself. Could you spend some time playing around with the syringe with some water. Show him how it squirts out, hand it to him for him to have a go and work towards him squirting the water into his mouth, have fun with it. Do this when he’s not needing calpol. And then when he does need it pass him the syringe so he can do it himself.

Suppositories - put it in quickly when doing a nappy change.

Op you would overdose your child if you take this advice.

The correct dose for 2yo is 7.5ml of the infant suspension which is equivalent to 180mg.

Half an adult tablet is 250mg so a significant overdose.