DS refuses to take his medicine

[HIU8]

DS is 4. He has an ear infection and an infection in his eye. I assume it's pinkeye but the ped only said eye infection. I'm at my wits end. DD also has a double ear infection and takes her med beautifully.

Meanwhile, DS has to be held down to take meds and he spits them out. The ped knows this and gave us azithromiacin (DS is allergic to Penicillin) which is one dose for 3 days and that's it. I need myself and 2 other adults to get it down his throat. I finally got him to allow me to put a topical prescription ointment on his eye (drops are a nightmare).

Anyone else BTDT? Any solutions? DS could care less about getting a toy or something special. He could also care less about losing his toys b/c he refuses to cooperate. I'm at a loss of how to handle him with meds at this point.

[hillview]

Food rewards (chocolate? Ice cream?)
Get to do something special (watch a show? play a computer game?)
Can you mix it with something (juice)?
Have the drugstore add something to make it taste better?

HTH
/hillary

[egoldber]

I was going to suggest upping the ante on the reward. Sarah has a REALLY strong gag reflex and taking a lot of meds is super hard for her psychologically. I have given a new Webkinz for an especially nasty bout of antibiotics.

[thomma]

Ds was horrible with meds (and he needed a lot of them) until the age of 4. At that time our approach was "you need to take these, how do you want to do it?" Turns out he wanted to sit on the counter with a special spoon or go down to the finished room in the basement and watch a special show AFTER he took his meds. 9 times out of 10 it worked.

Kim
ds&dd 5/03

[HIU8]

I offered him food rewards, a new thomas train, one of his hanukah presents early, and a host of other things. His answer "I don't care about toys or surprises. I'm not going to take the medicine no matter what you say. I don't want any new toys."

We mixed it with pediasure (his favorite drink). He tasted the meds in it and refused to drink it.

We have tried the different things the drugstore can add and none of them work so far.

I know he will be on more than one round of meds because of this.

[HIU8]

I can't even get the meds to his lips he gets so hysterical. I know it is a control thing with him. It can take up to 2 hours to get him to cooperate enough to get some meds into him. Believe me I offered to get him more geotrax--his absolute favorite toy and he even refused that.

[HIU8]

We also tried that approach. You have to take this, how do you want to do it. Didn't work for the meds. It does work for other things though with DS.

[kransden]

My dd had her tonsils out at age 4. Let's just say it was an unpleasant experience and nothing worked to get her to take her meds. So I feel your pain. On the other hand, I just want to let you know that eventually bribery will win out when they are a little older so hang in there :).

[bubbaray]

I would force it down. You can aim it at the side of his mouth while holding his mouth open with the other hand. If you need to stroke the outside of his trachea to encourage it down.... BTDT, NOT fun.

GL!

[HIU8]

Thanks. That is what we are going to try for tomorrows dosage. I'm really not looking forward to it.

[bubbaray]

Its sooo not fun, but honestly, I think these little people can pick up on your confidence on things like meds. I just go into it a "you need to take your meds, I will NOT TAKE ANY GUFF" attitude. I'm more successful getting them in than DH is, who tries the Mr Nice Guy approach, which sooooo does not work with our girls. There has been times when he's injested more meds than they have. He really does.not.like being spit on.

[s_gosney]

Well, it sounds like you've tried just about everything...the only other thought I have is reverse psychology. DD is strong willed and really dislikes most meds too, but we've had some success with racing. She wants to be in a different room from us or have us close our eyes, then we count reeeealllly sllllow to 10, announcing every couple of numbers "I just know I'm going to win this time!" or something like that and usually it works. She loves to think she's tricked us.
Good luck.

[pinkmomagain]

I've had a similar problem with DD (3 yo). She recently had to go through 2 rounds of antibiotics for a sinus infection. She was refusing to take the med...hysterics, holding her down, etc. Then I got sneaky and put it in a strawberry Danimal Drinkable (she drinks them all the time). I said "OK, you don't have to take your medicine but you do have to drink a Danimal because that will help your nosey." She said OK and drank it. And then I continued that till the round of meds were done. She didn't seem to notice the med in the drink.

Good Luck!

[Tondi G]

Just letting you know... with Zithromax you cannot mix it with juice or any other liquid. I tried that when my little guy was in EI hell. I tried mixing it in a bottle... all the cherry taste disappears and the NASTY bitter taste remains. He wouldn't take a bottle for almost a whole day cause he thought I was trying to hide meds in it!

I used to sit downwith DS's head over one leg.... my other leg held him down. I used a syringe not a dropper that the pharmacy gives you.... you need better control. You have to hold their face and squirt tiny bit by tiny bit till you get it all down. You can try the bribe of ... hey you can take it down easy and be done with it and get a lollypop or chocolate kiss or M&Ms ... or you can make it hard, we can hold you down and you can get nothing for all your efforts to make it hard! I also started telling my DS he could either take the medicine or we could go to the doctor and they could give him shots to make the infection go away. My DS slowly started coming around and takes the meds much easier now. I found Omincef went down easier than Zithromax with my little guy.... not sure if it's ok for an amox/penicillian allergy though. My 7 yr old can't take amoxicillan either.

I know it's rough but you just gotta do what you gotta do. You might need your ped to call in a 2nd prescription.... if he spits out too much. Good Luck!

[Blakes Mommy]

I feel your pain...i just went through this with my son. He is 3 and autistic ( so a little more difficult than most kids). My son is allergic to amoxicillin. We just got Zithromax a couple weeks ago. I actually had to do the "two people hold down" and he wouldn't take it the last day at all. (I usually get omnicef for ears, but, they weren't sure if he might have something else like strep throat)

I called the doctor who said the throat culture was clear so we didn't need the Zithromax anyway and I thought his ears were still bothering him so we went back to the doctor. They gave us Omnicef instead....SO MUCH BETTER!!!! Much easier to get him to take even though its usually 10 days for us. They even gave us a stronger dosage 250 mg at 1/2 teaspoon versus 125mg for a whole teaspoon. My son likes yogurt so I mix it in some and he doesn't even notice. With the Zithromax I tried disguising it many different ways and NONE worked!!! I have done this yogurt disguise with omnicef probably on 5 different perscritions and it has worked like a charm everytime. Just don't let them know what your doing!! Good luck!