Anyone know how to get antibiotics into 3 mth old?

[theoptimist]

Hi there, Can anyone help with this. I'm really struggling and have tried everything I can think of:

syringe - makes her cough, splutter, almost choke and she spits it out anyway.

putting medicine on finger and placing it on her tongue - she stores it and spits it out.

spoon - again she spits it out or swallows it too quickly and cries hard or almost chokes.

bottle attachment - again there's too much released at once and she almost chokes.

The whole of one of her thighs has become infected, and she has high temp, so I need her to have the antibiotics. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Don't have any other suggestions, sorry.

I'm guessing she's also getting Calpol or similar for the temp? How does she take that?

IME what worked the best for my DCs at that age was the syringe but only putting a tiny amount in each squirt and positioning it as far back in the side of her mouth/between gums as possible. Ok, it takes a while but I found that way more of it seemed to get in them than end up all over me again!

Good Luck, hope she feels better soon. And yes the screaming and crying makes you feel awful, or at least it did me, but persevere and it gets better as they learn you wont not give it to them.

My doc said it was ok to put it in an ounce or 2 of (not hot) milk in a bottle, I expressed but I would guess formula would be ok too?

If you really really cant get it in, you are going to have to ring/go to docs. May need admission for i.v's.

I have played the "tediously slow progess with a syringe" game too. Best of luck.

Agree with repmy

Rempy* sorry

Ask pharmacist but i'm certain you can mix with milk/juice in bottle. XX

You can get a medicine dummy. It will deliver about 4ml at a time.
See www.4little1.com

I used to really struggle giving my DD medicines. The dummy helped until she got wise to it and refused to have it in her mouth.

When she was about 5 months she ended up in hospital needing medicine every 2 hours. One of the nurses was brilliant at it. She would only give about 1ml at a time towards the side and back of her mouth. If you squirt the syringe too fast even an adult will cough and splutter (try squirting just water with the syringe, you can make it go several meters).

A couple of other ideas: If the antibiotics taste too revolting, could you ask the gp or pharmacist if it is available in a different flavour? I have also asked the gp to prescribe a more concentrated version, so that the dose was smaller.

I'll second the medicine dummy, brilliant invention.

None of mine would use the medicine dummy thing, they hated it; even though dd was bottlefed and ds1 and ds2 breastfed. They just spat it out or didn't suck it at all.

Thanks for your suggestions. I've tried everything, but I'm not good at using the syringe - I try to press it lightly, but then it jerks and squirts too much, so yes she almost chokes on that.
No matter what I do, even using the dummy, she stores it in her mouth and then spits it all out.

I will try adding it to milk if I can.

But, anyway, she's improving quite quickly now. Still, I have to do it 4 times a day, for 4 more days.

It's horrible - I hope she doesn't take a dislike to me?
I'm taking her to the GP tomorrow morning so I'll see what he thinks.

Her whole thigh was bright red, solid and you could cook on it, it was that hot, but now it's looking close to normal thank god!
Thanks again.

I used the squirty device that comes with Infacol - same principle as a syringe, but it's far easier to control

Ah, yes that sounds like a good idea - I have one of those so I Will try that tomorrow morning. Thanks.

My HV suggested blowing into the baby's face once she has some mmedicine in her mouth. apparently it makes them swallow.

I guess it's worth a try

Really? OK I'll try that too! Could take many blows though, as 5ml seems like a litre, when you have to give tiny drops at a time. But, worth a try if it means her tops stop getting the medicine instead of her. I'm running out too - all that wastage! Thanks.

Not sure the blowing in face thing would work!

It makes them take a breath in, so I wouldn't try it with anything in their mouth!

OK, I didn't do the blowing in the face thing. But I did use the infacol dispenser, rather than the syringe, and it worked well, despite my daughter whinging throughout. For some reason she didn't spit it all back out again.

GP said that they although they prescribe 5ml doses, that as long as you get some of it into the baby 4 times a day, you're fine.

Thanks for the advice.

hi theoptimist, DS2 used to be exactly like this until he was in hospital with pneumonia, the nurse on duty showed us how to get him to swallow his medicine when taken from a syringe - you need to point the syringe into the baby's cheek and slowly squeeze the medicine out, the baby's reflex will make them swallow the medicine. HTH - I couldn't believe it when DS took his meds from her without a fuss, she said she had never had a failure in 25 years of nursing