Getting DS to take his medicine

[eepster]

4yo DS needs to take medicine for a few more days.

I've tried mixing it into every kind of juice imaginable, and even offered soda. I've tried bribing him. I've tried making him stay in his room till he is willing to take it. I have tried some very very unAP yelling. He is so stubborn about it that he will hold out for hours.

I just want him to get better so we can get on with our lives and he can go back to school. We are both ending up in tears over this.

Anyone have any never fail tips.

[snoopy5386]

how often does he have to take it? Are you giving it to him alone or is someone there to help you? I know it is very un-AP but if you've tried everything else I would just get DH to help and strongarm him into it. Use a syringe.
Can you see if the pharmacy can flavor it?
I would try a juice or ice cream chaser as opposed to mixing it. Tell him to hold his nose and use a syringe to squirt it in his mouth.

[TEAK's Mom]

I've had great luck with the old "plug your nose while I squirt it in then, you can have a chaser of something really tasty to get rid of the nasty aftertaste."

You can also go to a compounding pharmacy and see what they can do. There are lots of ways to flavor things. Or, can you teach him to swallow a pill? Most things are available in pill form. My MIL (a pediatrician) says that TicTacs are great for learning to swallow pills.

[queencarr]

We do m & m's after meds. The chocolate coats the mouth and covers almost any medicine taste. However, we rarely have m & m's at any other time, so as to keep them special Also, letting them push their own plunger on the syringe has been helpful at times.

[eepster]

It's flavored already. I've tasted it, and it is quite palletable, like sweet cherry candy. We have tried bribing with fruitsnacks, which are held in a much higher esteem than M&Ms, and it is a no go.

Just tried the squirt it down his throat method with the result of stickyness every where but inside him. Thanks for the suggestion though.

We're trying the sit on a chair in the kitchen with nothing to do till your willing to drink your medicine approach now. We've been at this for hours. I started with up in you room with no company, but he actually fell asleep (he never ever falls asleep by himself if it's bedtime.)

He is supposed to have it every 6 hours. The worst problem with that is since it takes me about 4 hours to get it into him he's not getting nearly as many doses as he should be. The frustrating thing is if he would just take the stuff the problem might clear up enough that we could stop making him take it. We just need to know for sure why he is covered in spots (The pediatrician suspects penicillin allergy and if the antihistamines clear it up then we can get on with our lives. However, if the spot persist it is probably an infection that requires more anti-biotics.)

This is just so so frustrating.

[lnitti]

FWIW, My almost 6 year old can't tolerate ANY liquid medicine not matter what you do. And as you said, trying to squirt it in ends up with a sticky mess everywhere.

Can you talk to the doctor to see if there may be a different form you can take other than a liquid?

My dd recently opted for a shot of a steroid rather than taking a liquid version when she was in the ER recently.

[One_Girl]

Can you get it in chewable form? My dd hates the liquids but is fine with chewable stuff. I know that Benadryl makes a chewable antihistamine for kids and you can break the pill in half or quarters to get the correct dose. My dd's doctor had us do this when she was younger. You may need to bring him into the doctor to get a shot of the medicine if he won't take the medicine in any form.

[eepster]

I looked at the chewables, but was scared of messing up the dosage. DS actually decided last night that he would rather go to the Dr and get it in shot form than drink the medicine, so we went to bed with the agreement that DH would take him (DH was the one who couldn't stand the not sleeping any longer.)

Of course this morning DH discovered they don't keep the injectable version at our pediatricians office. They told us to try putting it in a smoothy.

Thankgoodness, when DS woke up the spots were finally clearing up. I guess some of the stuff I squirted in his mouth went down, or the anti-biotic just finally cleared out of his system.

I just don't know what I'm going to do if he ever needs medicine again. Hopefully it will be a long long time (I'm not one for giving medicine for any little thing though.)

[AAK]

The one "mix in" version that has had some success at our house has been with chocolate pudding. Just don't let the kid know it is in there.

But, we usually do the chaser with a hershey's kiss.

A friend found that her kid would take it with a stir straw. She put the med in one of the dispencing spoons, and stuck a stir straw in it. That way he could bypass most of his tongue and be in control of how fast it entered his mouth.

Amy

[lnitti]

Originally Posted by eepster

I looked at the chewables, but was scared of messing up the dosage. DS actually decided last night that he would rather go to the Dr and get it in shot form than drink the medicine, so we went to bed with the agreement that DH would take him (DH was the one who couldn't stand the not sleeping any longer.)

Of course this morning DH discovered they don't keep the injectable version at our pediatricians office. They told us to try putting it in a smoothy.

Thankgoodness, when DS woke up the spots were finally clearing up. I guess some of the stuff I squirted in his mouth went down, or the anti-biotic just finally cleared out of his system.

I just don't know what I'm going to do if he ever needs medicine again. Hopefully it will be a long long time (I'm not one for giving medicine for any little thing though.)

That is us! We just keep our fingers crossed that she won't need any. My dd will not drink anything other than milk or water, so juice and smoothies won't work. She is just very extra sensitive to taste. I don't even think she would do a chewable.

My 2 year old on the other hand learned how to swallow a pill today.

[carfreemama]

Man, I am so there with you on this. Dd is another one who very rarely needs medicine and anyone who hasn't experienced this has NO IDEA. For us, it was sedation needed for dental work. We waited 5 MONTHS for a paediatric dentist appointment and she had to take the equivalent of 2 tablespoons of medicine. The next step was general anaesthetic in the hospital, because they wouldn't treat her without sedation. Frustrating, because dd has always been extremely cooperative with dental procedures, with no freezing or sedation. But this one was more involved. They would not listen to me that the medicine was more traumatic for her, just do the work! So dh was with me and he tried to give it to her. She turned her head and the sedation went all over her. I got so, so angry; at her and dh. I know that was wrong, but I also knew how high the stakes were. They couldn't give her more, obviously; because they didn't know how much got into her (not much). But they asked us to wait anyway, just to see.

Sure enough, they took her in and she had 2 teeth pulled, a baby root canal and a cap. She would literally rather go to the hospital and get put out, or have teeth pulled and drilled wide awake, than take 2 tbsp of medicine.

I am VERY curious about the pill swallowing thing. And the straw thing. Or anything. OP, I'm glad you're through this and you LO is better!