Conference moira::parenting

    Sue,
    
    Sorry about not having a better idea, but Force is the only thing that
    has worked for me.  I hate it, but the medicine when needed is too
    critical to screw around with trying to sneak it in.  Lolita, Carrie
    and Atlehi have all at various times refused to take medicine, and it
    has taken two of us to get soe of it in.  
    
    I do explain to the child why I am doing this, and explain that taking
    it easily will make life better, and I do keep a favorite drink around
    to wipe out the nasty taste afterwards.  After a time they do
    understand why they have to take it and the struggles drop.
    
    in this day and age with antibiotic-resistant bugs, making sure they
    take the full course is about the only protection for them, and
    especially for those of us who are limited as to which antibiotics we
    can take.
    
    meg
    

   How about when they are asleep?  I know you can't do it all that way
   for medicines that need to be taken more than once a day, but we've
   found that our kids take a while to lose that sucking instinct - if we
   put an eyedropper in their mouth when they are asleep, they are likely
   to suck it dry.  Not sure if they'd wake up with something that tasted
   really nasty, but who knows.
   
   fwiw,

   - Tom

Noelle usually loves medicine, but when she was *really*
sick with pneumonia, she wanted *nothing* to do with the
antibiotic (and the cough medicine).  What helped for us
was to have Pooh take a sip of medicine (she *adores*
Winnie-the-Pooh), then Noelle, then a sip of water, 
then a brief walk (in Mommy's arms) around the 1st floor; 
repeat until the dose is done.

Hope this helps!

- Deb B.

    
    Tell the Dr. ... Jonathan's usually good about medicine, but this last
    round with his ears, they put him on Gantrissan (sp?).  He **HATES**
    the taste of it.  AND he needed a whole tsp of it, which from the
    dropper is "two" doses.  I told the Dr., and they just switched to a
    kind he WILL take.  Easy enough.
    
    Also, if you get the "cold" ones, they're available in different
    strengths.  At 2, she's probably taking 1 tsp of (say) 125mg medicine. 
    Ask for a stronger medication, in a smaller dose (1/2 tsp of 250mg).
    Works for us!  I got a funny look the first few times, but asking the
    Dr. to limit the volume of medicine seemed to get the point across.
    
    Unfortunately Bactrim's only available in one strength.  Or maybe
    consider chewables??  Jonathan's funny .... when he feels fine, he'll
    eat the amoxycillan chewables (by the handful if he were allowed!), but
    as soon as he has an ear infection, he won't go NEAR them!  Things must
    taste different to him then.
    
    It'll cost you another co-pay till you find a flavor she likes, but it
    beats the heck out of the torment ....  Augmentin comes in a
    pineapple-y/citrus flavor.  Suprax seemed pretty unoffensive too.
    
    Good Luck!
    Patty

    My two year old hates medicine.  We mostly have taken Amoxicillian, and
    once Suprax.  The Suprax went down quite easily but the my HMO removed
    it from their formulary. :-(     I pretty much have to use the force
    method but have found that using a "plunger type" syringe thing is alot
    better than the "eyedropper" type.  It lets you control the flow better
    and does not drip.  I bought it in the pharmacy area of my grocery
    store.   I dreamed (during a series of doses) that *they* should make 
    a pacifier that you can put medicine in and when they suck, they suck 
    the medicine out of it.  Kind of like a bottle nipple. Of course, the
    little ones are *way too smart* for that.
    
    Good Luck!

    They do (at least used to!) make a pacifier that dispenses medicine.  I
    remember seeing them a lot at Child World.  And figured if I used it,
    the kid would never trust me again....! (-;
    
    

    Thanks for all the suggestions.  I've been doing pretty well with
    her over the weekend.  I let Erica feed her dollies and animals first
    with the medicine and then Erica takes a turn.  It's time consuming,
    but certianly worth it not to hear her cry.  
    
    Now she's telling me she's "SO PROUD" of me.....  (She's been hearing
    it so much!!)
    
    Sue
    

    I've struggled w/ this too. My (now) 4 yr. old wouldn't take baby
    tylenol or any other oral medicine 'til she was about 2...So until
    that point it was Feverall suppositories instead of oral for pain/fever
    relief. She hated it, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
    
    As far as antibiotics, I think Amoxycillin is the only one that
    comes in tablet form...but keep checking, things change. So, what did I 
    do when that inevitable ear infection came along and the amoxycillin
    didn't take? I used a tip from an earlier Parenting notesfile...
    
    Get one of those large eyedroppers for medicine. When administering (w/
    help if you can get it), pull out the cheek and give put the eyedropper
    tip back between the cheek and gum. Almost impossible to spit it out,
    so it has to be swallowed. Doesn't make them gag as much as it's not on
    the tongue (maybe this also bypasses some of the taste buds?).
    

   That pacifier idea isn't as crazy as some may think... it reminded me
   of something we did years ago with one of the kids... put the medicine
   into a bottle nipple and then insert the nipple into the child's
   mouth.  My wife has always breast fed our kids, so there was no issue
   of trusting the source, or anything like that.  The sucking reflex
   seems to be strong enough to overcome the reflex to spit the medicine
   out - at least when they are young.
   
   Not sure if this would work with a 2yr old, though, I think my kids
   were younger when we did this.
   
   fwiw,

   - Tom

    We find that serving the medicine very cold (numbs the taste buds)
    through a syringe works well.  Conditioning the child by first serving
    something tasty through the syringe seems to make them receptive 
    enough to open their mouth.

We have 2 "voices" we use with the children.  One is the normal voice, where
we mean what we say.  The other is the "pretend" voice, which is pitched much
higher and almost "silly" in its tone.  "Oh, that's *my* shirt!" when it's his.
"Isn't that *my* medicine?" when they don't want to drink it.  We reach for
the medicine, and Justin, who is also 2, will *jump* at the medicine, shirt,
whatever - "No!  That's *my* medicine!" he'll shout, as he grabs the medicine
and downs it - glub-glub-glub.  We make a big deal of it when he drinks the
medicine ("AAaaaa!!  You're drinking my medicine!") and he grins. 

It's easy, the voice keeps it from being confused with real commands, and
he takes his medicine without complaining.

We also give them the option of having "water medicine" after drinking the
other stuff.  We just refill the little cup with water, which a) helps them
get the taste out of their mouth, and b) gets any remaining medicine in them.

Lastly, our first son liked to drink the medicine out of a dispenser shaped
like an alligator.  (not the second son, though).

       Carol

    I *still* have this problem, and my son will be 7 soon.  He *hates*
    medicines, they all taste awful as far as he is concerned.  From the
    time he was two, we taught him to hold his nose while he drinks his
    medicine, and *immediately* drink something that tastes better (juice,
    water, whatever).  I also have a buddy whose son is severely learning
    disabled, and also has seizures.  He has to take medicine every day,
    several times a day.  She gets his stuff in *pill* form, crushes up the
    pills in a mortar and pestle, and then mixes it with Cool Whip.  He
    gobbles that stuff up!
    
    M.
    

    We went through this same problem with our son.  At least kids
    are capable of reasoning when they're 2, which is a big plus
    when it comes to taking medicine.
    
    We gave our son two choices: either he takes it voluntarily by
    himself, or we hold him and force it into his mouth.  Although
    we didn't like to use force, it made the point to him that he
    was going to take his medicine, like it or not.  We believed,
    and found it to be the case, that he would ultimately prefer to
    take it voluntarily after experiencing the other way a couple
    of times and knowing we were not bluffing.
    
    We also made it clear to him that if he took it by himself
    that he could have all kinds of things to make it easier.  We
    told him he could mix it with milk, or have a glass of water
    or juice, and he could take it as slowly as he wanted. (But
    he wouldn't get any of those things if we had to force it into
    him.)
    
    Watching him take his medicine by himself was an exercise in
    patience, humor, understanding, and persuasion.  Typically, he'd
    take a tiny drop of medicine, a drink of water or juice, and
    then complain that he didn't like it, and then ask if he'd taken
    enough.  This would go on for quite a long time, sometimes as
    long as 20 minutes or more just to get a teaspoon of medicine
    down.
    
    But now, at age 9, he does take his own medicine.  We're always
    looking for ways of making it taste better, and we still get the
    inevitable complaints.
    
    I think children should be genetically engineered to be born with
    plastic tubes leading directly into their stomachs, so that
    medicine could be administered more easily. :)
    
    
    
    
    
    

    Also see if the pharmacy has chewable tablets. My 3 1/2 yr old has been
    on an ongoing dose of Augmentin this winter and finally we tried the
    chewables, with great luck.
    

    Be careful crushing medicines .... some of them should NOT be crushed,
    as you're interfering with the absorption rate of the medicine in your
    stomache.  Chewables are fine to crush - check with your pharmacist
    about any others.
    
    -Patty

This is just a note of thanks to the many who participate in this notesfile!

Aftre having a difficult time getting our 16 mo. old to take some medicine,
I came to this notesfile and found this topic.  Using a combination of ideas
and suggestions from here, we managed to get him to take his much needed
medicine.

Dan 

    Along that line, Dan...  I too have thanks to extend.  Not 
    just for all I've gotten out of it myself, but I had printed
    out all the notes you have in here on urinary reflux.  
    
    My three year old neice goes in for testing today.  I had given
    my sister-in-law all your notes.  She called me this week to thank
    me for them.  She said she had so much more information and had some
    questions as a result.  When she saw the doctor this week, he was
    impressed with her questions and said "Boy, you've been doing some
    research, haven't you!".   She smiled and sent you all a silent
    thanks!
    						cj *->