How can I get important medicine down this stroppy child?

[clucks]

I have to give my son liquid medicine twice a day (2 types) for his constipation which affects his/our quality of life greatly. They taste fine and he has always been good until a few weeks ago. He now covers his mouth and fights, spits out, runs off etc. Today, I held his nose and tried syringeing it in and almost choked him. of course he spat it out everywhere (better than choking). I have been sneaking the stuff into his bedtime drink and of course if he doesn't finish it and the dose is all wrong. Worse is the fact that one of them is sugar-based and will definitely rot his teeth given this way. Some of you may know that will really put the lid on the can for me.

I decided that I can't fight him to get the stuff down him and can't think of what else to do except continue rotting his teeth. Please can anyone help, I'm sure there's some obvious way of getting his medicine in and I'm too thick to work it out. Thanks.

Clucks, don't know how old he is but would making a race with a reward out of it help? I'm thinking, "see if you can drink this and then eat this sweet before I count to 20" kind of thing. You can clean his teeth after the 4 minutes or whatever is over! What a pain, know the feeling, have to beg mine to take medicine.

Can you mix it into some fromage frais and give it to him after his tea/supper and as an extra 'treat' at breakfast? Is it lactolose? if so you are quite right, it can rot the teeth. Dd managed to avoid it but a good friends son had awful problems. Good luck, I have been where you are now and it is not fun.

How old is your son? When my ds has to take medicine I fill up the syringe and give it to him to do. He likes being in control and doing it himself. I find we have less arguements. My ds is 3.

Or how about buying some special sweets that he is only allowed after his medicine? Bribery and corruption are sometimes the only way!

DS is 2.5 and playing up generally recently; this independence thing is getting me down. Lactulose is one of the medicines, and tastes great in my opinion.

I haven't tried fromage frais/yogurt thing because first it didn't occur to me and secondly, he has been so odd that often refuses things he loves just to be awkward. Will try tonight.

It didn't occur to me to give him the syringe and bribe him later. I will try that too, the trouble is that he is not into sweets in a big way (well, you know compared to some of them) and sometimes refuses sweets too...strange child. Probably, if he had a sweet tooth he would love the lactulose.

If things get bad could always continue as I am but drop the lactulose which is not very effective for him anyway.

I wonder if it's a general bad behaviour phase which will pass, thanks for the advice so far.

How long does he have to continue taking it Clucks? Could you stop it for a while, making sure that he has enough fluids and roughage to go to the loo unassisted by medicine? My first ds had lots of problems which he needed lactulose for but in the end he started going by himself. He is now 15 so I can't actually remember how that happened. At the time I thought it would never improve

Mears

He had a hospital appt recently and due to relapse he has to have the laxoberal (less threatening dentally than lactulose) but as the lactulose never helped anyway, I'm dropping it.

Tried medicine filled yogurt, and empowering him by giving him the syringe/spoon which he chucked all over the floor. Also, refused sweets as reward tonight. failed on all counts tonight.. tomorrow is another day.

Clucks

I am in the same position with senna and lactulose going into my son on a twice daily basis. I reckon he has the constitution of an ox, because unless senna is given in obsence amounts it donesn't seem to work. But back to the main problem. Ds will only take his in a certain order ie one yellow (lactulose), then two brown (senna) then the last two yellow. HE has not stopped taking it from me, and will only take from dh in the bath. Can't give any more suggestion than have been given, sorry, just to let you know you are not alone.

We also have to do this with dd2. I put both medicines in a small amount of juice (yes, lethal tooth rot cocktail) in her favourite cup at breakfast and tea, trying to ensure she is reasonably thirsty beforehand. She usually then drinks it all. I then replenish her cup with a normal amount of drink. Hopefully it's less bad for the teeth if taken with a meal ??

I do the same as caroline5. Everything goes into the breakfast drink- as he't thirsty then. Anything else would be mixed with yoghurt.