Stubborn 3yo, high fever, miserable and will not take meds

[SnuggleBuggles]

Poor ds2 is sick. He's had a high fever since Sat. night. No real symptoms other than just feeling bad and occasional complaints of headache and such. I suspect flu. Anyway, we are failing at getting ibuprofen in him! He has taken to spitting the liquid stuff right out. We have some Tylenol meltaways that we got ok'ed and he took those yesterday and now he won't take them either. None of my old tricks are working to get meds in. I contemplated not treating his 103 fever but he is laying there whimpering.

I have tried swaddling him so he could not bat the dispenser away
I've tried giving options of the 2 meds
offered a treat
tried squirting in the whole dose at once
tried squirting in a tiny amount at a time
reasoning with him
putting the meltaway in his mouth

Ideas???

Beth

[JBaxter]

acetaminophen suppositories. Ask your pharmacist he has has them.

[logan's mom]

I second the suppositories, and I would try a tepid (room temp) bath too. Mabye if he is a little more comfortable, then he would be a little more cooperative. sicks kids are no fun.

[Indianamom2]

I don't have any suggestions because DD was just like this at that age. We still dread medicine with her.

Have you tried a different flavor of the ibuprofen/tylenol? DD will ONLY take grape, for instance. Have you bribed him? When my kids are sick...we do WHATEVER works, including holding her down, but once they can spit it back out, it's really hard.

Hang in there....this too shall pass!

[crl]

You have probably already tried this

Lay him down flat. Pin his legs and arms. (much easier with a second adult). Squirt the medicine as far back in as you can. Hold him there until he swallows. We had to do that with ds for meds we deemed essential. After a couple of times of that we gave him a choice of cooperating and he started cooperating instead of being pinned down.

Catherine

[JBaxter]

Originally Posted by crl

You have probably already tried this

Lay him down flat. Pin his legs and arms. (much easier with a second adult). Squirt the medicine as far back in as you can. Hold him there until he swallows. We had to do that with ds for meds we deemed essential. After a couple of times of that we gave him a choice of cooperating and he started cooperating instead of being pinned down.

Catherine

um not all kids give up thats how I discovered the suppositories.

[TwoBees]

Use an oral syringe for dosing, squirt in the cheek and clamp the mouth shut.

Ok, in writing, that sounds awful.

Can you try a different flavor or mix it with something that will disguise the flavor, maybe cola syrup or chocolate syrup?

[wimama]

My DS can't handle the artificial dyes and flavors in the liquids. I give him adult Tylenol tablets, but do so by breaking the tablet into the correct size dosage. I break the pieces up pretty small and give it to him in chocolate ice cream. DS thinks I am some kind of hero for giving him ice cream medicine.

Of course, you need to be very careful figuring out the correct dosage. Your local pharmacist can help you figure out the dosing.

[mikeys_mom]

Originally Posted by JBaxter

um not all kids give up thats how I discovered the suppositories.

DD1 will gag on liquid medicine and will 100% refuse to take it in any form, even disguised in chocolate milk.
Squirting to the back of the mouth worked for DS, so it's not like I was doing it wrong with DD1. She would just gag it back up and refuse the next time.

[crl]

Originally Posted by JBaxter

um not all kids give up thats how I discovered the suppositories.

I am sure many kids don't. The meds we were insisting on were not available in suppository form. We would have continued to pin him down if it had been necessary. I just wanted to mention that some kids might decide to cooperate after all and so it might make sense to offer the choice of cooperating. No sense continuing to pin a kid down if they DO decide to cooperate.

Catherine