suggestions please

[beckyand3littlemonsters]

my 5 year old daughter has tonsillitis and has been put on antibiotics but she refuses to take them cos she doesn't like the taste, she got herself in a state when i tried giving her it at tea time and made herself sick, i've tried disguising the taste but this doesn't work either.
i'm not sure what to do should i keep trying with this medicine? go back to the dr.'s to see if there is anything else they can give her ? or anything else you can think of that may help
tia

[3xMama]

A lot of pharmacies have flavorings that can be added to a liquid medicine. If you can't get her to take the liquid, maybe you could get a pill form, crush it and put it into applesauce/yogurt/pudding etc. Something she likes and you know she'll eat. Good luck, I hope she feels better soon!

[beckyand3littlemonsters]

Thanks i'll ask about the flavourings first and if i can't get them i'll try seeing if i can get the tablets

[pianojazzgirl]

I'm not usually at all into bribes, but I wouldn't be opposed to using them in this case.  Maybe offer a treat (small chocolate?) for after she takes her medicine.  Or a sticker?  Or if she's able to think a bit more long-term you could do a sticker chart or something where after she's done the whole course of antibiotics she "earns" a special toy.

Another thought is to give it to her when she's a bit distracted, like watching tv or a movie.

[beckyand3littlemonsters]

The sticker chart sounds like a good idea i could let her choose a toy/book she wants and then go get it for her when she's finished her meds
thanks

[Dancerchic1981]

You've gotten some good ideas.

I'm also not one for bribes but if my children are on nasty tasting medicine I'll only let them have dessert if they take their meds. It usually works.

The flavoring at the pharmacy has been an awesome help sometimes as well.

Good luck and I hope she feels better soon!

[LaughingHyena]

We make sure to use a syringe rather than a spoon for nasty tasting medicines. Squirt it towards their cheek rather than over the tongue, that way they don't taste it so much. We also do the sweet or juice after to take the taste away.

[LynnS6]

We have a syringe that we use too.

The other thing we do is bribe like crazy. Really, there's no reason for her to be 'intrinsically motivated' to take vile tasting medicine at her age. When she's older and can take pills, it'll be a moot point. So, when dd was on antibiotics recently for strep throat, I offered her a spoonful of sugar (brown sugar is her favorite) every time she took her medicine.

I also just discovered that our pharmacy has chewable tablets of some antibiotics, so that's what we're going to do next time. Ds (who was on antibiotics a week after dd - they were passing that one around!) got the chewables and he said they didn't taste too bad.

[One_Girl]

I talk to my dd about why we take antibiotics and about the option of getting it with a shot rather than the way it is given, which is an option. In addition to that though I bribe her with five skittles.  Most antibiotics aren't an issue, but recently she had to take penicillin and it was awful.  We got through it with heavy bribes that I was able to decrease by the end.