3 year old will not take calpol no matter how many ways I try! - Help please!

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My son has a temperature, has been since yesterday afternoon. Has been very up and down, one minute it will be average then in will spike up to 37.8 being the highest so far. He has a very chesty cough as well and bringing up a lot of mucus.

It is always a fight to get him to take calpol no matter how many ways I try…. I’ve tried it in milk, in yogurt, from a spoon, from a syringe , showed him giving it to his baby sister (6 months old) when she was ill a few weeks back to make him see it’s nothing to be scared of, showed him myself having calpol, it’s always resulted in pinning him down but that isn’t an option this time round, he screams if I pin him down, which makes him cough lots which then results on him choking/ gagging on the calpol and just brings it back up anyway.

he is drinking water, not eating, sleeping lots and getting plenty of rest but I feel the calpol will help massively and I just don’t know what to do!

any ideas please??!!! Thank you x

Lies? Would he eat it as a strawberry sauce on ice cream? Or blended into a small fruit smoothie?

Nuerofen junior? Tastes like Orange? Stick in squash?

I find Tesco own brand cherry one better.

@IWillBeWaxingAnOwl he isn’t eating a thing at the minute. I have tried giving him calpol mixed in a strawberry yogurt before but he can still taste it 😩 he hates it that much

@Dmsandfloatydress I have tried this one before, the outcome is just the same 😩 spits it out, screams, all of the above. It’s really frustrating when he won’t take medication, I worry the day when he needs antibiotics and it’s serious and still refuses it then

@Haggisfish3 I haven’t ever thought to try a different flavour to be fair. I do think he is so traumatised by the syringe though that any medicine would be a problem 😩 but will give anything a go at this stage! Thank you

My son has to take a lot of medicine. Calpol these days is sugar free and tastes horrible. I know it's not good for them but i find adding sugar to calpol really helps. Also Nurofen tastes nicer than calpol.

Are you giving the sugars free one or the sugary one - get the latter
youre going to have to cradle him and then direct a syringe into the pouch of his cheek as it swallows more easily
Also try bribery etc - am sure you have

37.8 is a very low grade fever. I'd not bother with calpol for that and if it's causing him distress trying then I definitely wouldn't bother.

Yes under 38 it's better not to give anything as a low grade temperature actually helps to fight the bugs.

DS was like this when younger the only.one he would take was our pharmacies own brand, with added sugar.

When he is not ill it might be helpful to give him stuff he does like as a syringe squirt for fun to desensitise it? Eg we had a period of a lot of medication (that tasted actively bad) and to avoid instant tantrum when little one saw the syringe we played this with blackcurrant juice, chocolate milk etc

Pin him down, in with a syringe in a half dose per mouthful and then a quick puff of air to the face, quite a hard, sharp blow (like you’re forcefully blowing out a candle). This shock forces an involuntary swallow - a reflex.

Failing that, got any fancy French pharmacies near you? The French love paracetamol suppositories - they’re called ‘doliprane’ and can be bought online. Not much help for now, I admit.

Try the blowing thing.

Same here with my toddler - we would have to hold him and then he wouldn’t swallow it and eventually spit it out - what worked in the end was getting him to have a drink of juice with a straw right after taking the medicine and then he would swallow it. No idea why that worked but perhaps worth a shot!

A fever is 38 or above. 37.8 is close but wouldn’t remotely concern me nor would I medicate just for that, only if they were in pain with something else e.g. sore throat or ear ache. It’s also going to do nothing for a mucousy cough. Honestly I’d just let him be and get a calpol plug in and/or do vapor rub. But for when you do next need it I’d try nurofen- mine are quite happy to take that but refuse calpol.

My dd would never take it.

Having a low grade fever isn’t a bad thing, fever is the bodies way of fighting off infection. Of course calpol would help him feel a bit better but it’s not the be all and end all. The more you try and force it the more scared he will become of taking medicine and when you need to get something important like antibiotics into him you will struggle even more.

I couldn’t get any medicine into dd until she was old enough to have tablets (which were easier to crush and hide in something).

Paralink suppositories

or nurofen suppositories

It’s a two man job otherwise, one wrap him up in a towel, like a burrito and the other give it in a syringe

Doesn't sound like he actually needs any calpol?
Is he in pain?
A cough and cold with barely a raised temp?

I don't think that's a high fever so I wouldn't worry about it. However, my DD has had to have antibiotics before and she hated it. We just very calmly but very firmly held her down. One of us held her head and we got it in. This happened once and then she was fine taking it.
Same thing with teeth brushing when they have refused before...either open your mouth or I'll help you open it. All very kind and gently obviously but they learn very quickly you mean business.

Get a flavour he doesn't recognise, measure into a shot glass, put that glass into another glass with enough juice to nearly hide it and use a straw to make sure he's drinking the medicine.

We had to do this with antibiotics!

You need another pair of hands. Get a bath towel and wrap him up tightly to keep his arms out of the way. Sit him on one persons knee outward facing and that person can hold him round the waist and around the forehead to keep their head still. Other person very quickly squirts meds into the cheek pouch and holds their mouth closed under their chin. Keep hold completely until you’re sure it has been swallowed.
‘This has to be done swiftly!

The only thing that worked for our DD was getting her to show us how she could do it herself. Might need help with pushing the syringe down but honestly we were in a hospital pinning her arms down for the nurses and this was how we ended up getting calpol
into her.

In this instance it doesn’t sound like he needs it, but squirt it into the cheek not at the back of the mouth. Prevents gagging and encourages swallowing.

one minute it will be average then in will spike up to 37.8 being the highest so far.

As others have said, it's not a fever. Some people naturally run warmer and cooler.

Also, the in-ear ones give wildly fluctuating temperatures dependent on whether you've been resting your head on its side.

Put the thermometer down and only give calpol when their back is very hot under their clothes but they complain they're cold. That's a fever

Get suppositories. GP will be reluctant as they cost more in the UK (common and cheap elsewhere). They are so much easier all round, and fast acting.

Suppositories - I had these for my granddaughter - she looked a little surprised but they did the trick. Also they don't sick them up.!