Getting a Toddler to take medicine

[scrooks]

My DD needs to take amoxicillin for an ear infection. It's been awful days trying to get her to take the medicine. Bribery worked twice (with left over Christmas candy) but this evening NOTHING worked. I ended up pinning her down THREE times. Pinching her nose, holding her arms. It was ugly...definately not a proud mommy moment :cry:

I could get the medicine in her mouth but she would just spit it back out....I'm seriously at my wits end....any suggestions??? And I should mention right now she is a SUPER picky eater and I never know on any given day what she will eat and what she won't so I don't think hiding it in food would work....

[fauve01]

we mixed yucky tasting liquid medicine with ice cream. worked like a charm!

HTH,
Anne + DD 10-03

[SnuggleBuggles]

You're doing what I have done. Is it augmentin? Bubble gum flavoring worked better for it than some other flavors (watermelon was horrific).

Beth

[LMPC]

What about doing a chaser...don't laugh, but when I was little my mom would let me chase my medicine with coke (something we hardly ever got to have). It was so exciting to get soda, that I forgot I was taking medicine. I see that your DD is young and also considering soda has HFCS in it now...maybe some other drink that is typically "off limits." Just a thought.

[BigDog]

Sounds similar to my recent experience with 2yr old DS. I was at my wits end! I tried mixing the medicine in yogurt, chocolate pudding, ice cream... nothing worked, he'd just spit it out. I tried injecting it straight into his mouth... he'd spit it out. So then I called the doctor and was able to get it in chewable fruity-flavored tablets. I crushed them up and mixed them with everything under the sun - still no luck. So then I decided to just hand him the pills straight up and I told him it was candy. Bingo. Who knew it would be so simple?

[katydid1971]

DD has been on antibiotics almost constantly since birth because of her "plumbing problems". Cipro was the hardest to give. Don't feel badly holding Dc down to give the meds, she won't remember and it is for her health. When you give them to her, use the syringe and hold open her jaw with your other hand and shoot the meds into the back of her mouth. Its how you give them to a cat and its the best way to get yucky medicine into picky kids. I personally am opposed to hinding it in food because you don't know how much is actually taken. Good luck.

[KrisM]

Have you tried letting her do it? That works with our kids - giving them the control and the plunger :).

Also, make sure it's a flavor they like. Ours are always cherry.

[bubbaray]

OK, well, preparing to be flamed here, but I have NO problem pinning my kids down when necessary. I have, and will continue to, pin them down when medically necessary. That may be for medicine (not all can be flavored, some like Biaxin are nasty in texture, some can't be taken with food or juice), or for what I consider to be mandatory things (like brushing teeth twice daily or taking prescribed asthma medication).

Both of my girls went through a stage where the did not want their teeth brushed. Sorry, NOT optional in my house. So, I pinned them down. With DD#1, I had to pin her down every morning for months. Finally, DH started doing the teeth brushing and her behavior improved. With DD#2, I only had to pin her a couple of times and now all I have to say is "easy way or hard way" and she knows.

There aren't too many little kids who will comply with a medical procedure like a blood draw without being pinned. My girls have both had to have a a number of blood draws and, yeah, they get "held" by DH (see my thread from last week about my unsuccessful attempt with DD#2). He pins them with his arms.

I do not feel bad about pinning my kids when necessary.

Personally, I'm not at all comfortable telling my kids that medicine is candy. I don't want them helping themselves, KWIM?

[lalasmama]

I've been a medical assistant for over 10 years now, and done pediatrics the majority of the time.... I also have a 5 year old that was on Amoxicillin from 3 years old to 4 years old--yep, the whole time!

A few tricks I have learned....

--Chocolate syrup overwhelms taste buds. A squirt of Hershey's will actually completely mask many nasty medicines.

--*Ice* cold water before the medicine will dull the taste buds. You can also try doing a popsicle for the same effect.

--The medicine actually tastes better when really really cold, so you can put a serving of it in the freezer for a few minutes and see if she takes it better.

--Bribery of any sort.... extra bed time books, a little of that "only on special occasions" treat foods, stickers from the Dollar Tree, money (Lala is *big* into collecting pennies for her piggy bank, so getting 5 pennies is a HUGE thing for her!).

--Blowing up towards her nose will cause her to swallow involuntarily. (This is my trick when babies won't drink their rotavirus vaccine). No need to blow hard, just fast and right towards up her nose as you squirt the medicine in FAST!

--Choices choices choices! "Do you want the spoon or the squirter? Spoon or little tiny cup? Do you want to hold it or do you want me to hold it?"

--Attempt it at her most agreeable times. Yes, it needs to be spaced evenly between doses, but if she's happier after her mid-morning snack, give the medicine to her then. Lala would actually drink her medicine in her sleep; if she had a bad day, I wouldn't fight with the bedtime dose--I would sneak into her room after she was asleep, remove the thumb from her mouth, put the syringe in, and squirt the medicine slowly when she started sucking on the syringe.

--If she's old enough to be into stories or really understanding stories, you can always try to tell her a story about the ouchie buggies, and that the ouchie buggies with make her ears ouchy until they get the "happy ear buggy medicine."

--Lala occasionally responded well to being told it was her "very important job".

--Emulation can also work in your favor. Do you have to take a medicine? Take it in front of her, and talk about how much better you feel when you take your medicine. Its not going to be an instant cure, but it lets her know she's not the only one that has to take medicine sometimes. (This works well with shots too. Lala saw me get an antibiotic shot in my hip, and when it came to getting her flu shot, she took it like a champ, reminding me how I was a big girl with my shot and she was going to be just like me. Made my heart melt!)

--Can any stuffed friends help? "Dora has ouchies in her ears, what should we do?" Dora takes medicine then its her turn.

I had to pin Lala down many many times and *make* her take the medicine. She's nearly 6 now, and doesn't remember me being a mean mommy and holding her down :) Not that knowledge takes away the guilt of doing it, but we all that in parenting, not everything is going to be easy, and not everything is nnegotible!

[scrooks]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions...I'm going to give a couple a whirl and see what works...She needs her morning dose and I'm trying to gear up for it! I hope one of these suggestions works...:praying:

[WatchingThemGrow]

Great suggestions! We've tried tons of methods, including the one you did. DH actually put DS1 in the high chair and did an iPod slideshow of family pics to distract him a while back. Now, we're giving him a loaded vial - augmentin yesterday, amoxicillin two weeks ago. Just beware, you may be giving stuff for a while longer if it doesn't cure the issue.

We actually had a conversation about the 7mo spitting out his zantac this morning. Need a new technique for him also.

[Indianamom2]

Just chiming in a little late.

About a year ago, our then-4-year-old DD had to take Amox. twice a day for ten days. I was around 14 weeks pregnant and sick as a dog. She had a REALLY bad double ear infection and the meds were a must. She is very, very strong willed and refused to take the meds. My Dh and I tried everything...every suggestion here, every type of delivery system, every bribe...and both of us holding her down (she's the size of a 6 year old). She would spit the medicine out at us. After 5 days of this, I just couldn't do it anymore. We were getting bit, she wasn't getting the medicine and it was a nightmare. We even (fully meaning it) threatened her having to go to the doctor and get a shot. She said fine, and this is the kid who is terrified of the doctor.

In the end, I called the pedi and explained. I was seriously prepared to take her there for every single remaining dose (remember, I was pregnant and very sick). They gave her a Rocefin? shot, which they said was very painful. She took it like a champ, but it did hurt, and that was that.

Now, we know to ask for the chewable pills of Amoxicillin. Even though they smell nasty, are huge "horse-pills" and she has to take about 85 of them to get the proper dose, she knows it's that or the liquid and she chooses the pills.

Good luck, because it's not fun.

[egoldber]

This is one thing I find the pacifier very useful for. Squirt in the meds and then pop in the paci.

But as the PP said, at some point they get to be too big. And then it's harder. We have had to call and ask for different meds because there have been a couple that Sarah flat out refused to take. And she's big enough that we can't make her anymore. She's almost as big as I am.

[infocrazy]

I don't know if it works for older kids, but DS1 had reflux and was on zantac until 6 months. We would squirt the medicine in and then blow on his face. It would cause a reflex to swallow...

[rizzo0904]

Thankfully my kid loves taking medicine...it's strange actually. We give it in the small cup.

Try having it flavored.

Also, when Ian was younger, I would put the meds in a bottle nipple. It put it far enough back that he couldn't taste it and it just went down. Not sure if your child would be willing to try that.

[Piglet]

We had a similar problem so I went to pharmacist and asked if there were alternatives. They sometimes have the brand name vs. the generic and one of the other meds was yummier than the one we first received. I also had to once call my doctor and ask for a differnt rx altogether - he gave me the most disgusting med I had ever tasted (I licked a bit of DS's med to see just how bad it was and it was AWFUL). He faxed in a new rx for a slightly different med and all was well.

[scrooks]

Well this morning I mixed a small amount of ice cream, chocolate sauce and med together. She ate half around 9:30 and the other half at noon (I put it in the freezer in between)...small victory I guess. I'm sure it's not great that she took that amount of time to get the dose but she did get the dose. I hope it works again!

[scrooks]

Oh and THANKS for all the great suggestions!!!!!! :bighand: