Conference moira::parenting

    Have you tried just letting her suck the medicine out of a dropper?
    The reason I ask is when we had to give our daughter medicine, we
    also tried forcing her and she'd end up spitting it right back out.
    It was very traumatic for all of us!  We thought we HAD to force her
    because we just "Knew" she wouldn't like the medicine and we didn't
    think we'd get it down her any other way!  She'd get upset the
    minute we'd tilt her back and she'd clamp her mouth shut!  Then one
    day I had to give her the medicine by myself (with no help from
    hubby!) and could not restrain her and get the dropper ready at
    the same time.  So I filled the dropper, held her on my hip, and
    very slowly placed the tip of the dropper in her mouth.  She sucked
    on it and although she didn't get the entire dosage she got more than
    she did when I tried forcing it down her!  She didn't resist and 
    actually seemed to like sucking on the dropper.  You might try putting
    formula or juice in the dropper first to get her used to sucking 
    something out of it, and then put the medicine in.  By the way, my
    daughter was also about 7 months old when we first had to give her
    amoxycillin.  Good luck!
    
    Lila
     

    My 2 year old went through this when she was young.  The nurse
    practioner showed me a trick that worked wonders.  First, put a small
    amount in the mouth (maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the medicine) then blow a
    small puff of air in the nose very quickly before the baby has a chance
    to spit the medicine out.  The natural instinct when they get wind in
    the nose is to swallow.  
    
    Now, don't get me wrong.  The baby HATES it and will scream, but she
    took the medicine that was needed.  I figured I had lots of time to
    calm her down.
    
    Also, don't feel this will be a never ending battle.  With the same
    child now I give her the medicine spoon and she'll take anything,
    including Robitussin.
    
    Irene

    BTW, I don't mean blow as in the mouth covering the nose.  Just blow in
    her face aiming toward the nose.

    I found my child only liked certain medicines.  Perhaps, you
    should try another antibiotic.  Each medicine is flavored 
    differently - I think we tried three or four types with one
    ear infection until we found one that he liked.  It tasted
    like vanilla.  If I couldn't get Christopher to successfully
    take two successive doses, I called the dr. and got a new
    prescription.
    
    Good luck.

    
    Boy that brings back memories..bad ones. My daughter was horrible
    too. She was ok for 1 or 2 days of it but as we all know it goes
    on for 7-10 days 2-3 times a day. I had to hold her and my husband
    literally had to hold her nose closed, and keep her mouth open
    to get the stuff down here throat. ALl I can say is hope the
    kid doesn't get sick to often. 
    	But there is hope. One day when she was a few months older
    I put it on a spoon (ready for the fight) and she just said OK
    and took it...no problems ever since.?? you fiqure.
    
    	The idea of letting them take the dropper might work..my
    son likes to suck on his vitamin one..only problem is they 
    may squeeze out the medicine instead of taking it and then
    you don't know how much they took.
    
    	I used to as the peditrician if there was a pill form that
    I could chop up into some jelly or something, but no luck.
    
    	I used to really hate that liquid medicine..thank god my
    son didn't go through this..good luck
    
    	
    

    
    Patrick was horrible when it came to taking the medicine.
    
    I tried tricking him by getting the medicine ready, hiding
    it behind my back, giving him a spoonful of fruit and sneaking
    the medicine in before he got the fruit, didn't work.  I asked
    for it in "pill" form so i could crush it up, that didn't work
    either.  Holding the nose, blowing in his face, etc. none of 
    it worked.
    
    Finally, I called the pedi and asked them to give me something
    that tasted good (grape, cherry, etc.)....that finally worked.
    
    I look back and laugh about it now (hopefully you will too).  
    Patrick is now 15 months old and actually *likes* to take 
    medicine...he's also a little piggie and loves to eat but I
    feel confident that your baby will grow out of this, too!
    
    Good Luck!
    
    Kristin

    
    Hi!
    
    We also went through similiar episodes with our first daughter.
    The 'trick' our pedi suggested was to pour the medicine down
    the back of her throat.  To do this I had to hold her still 
    while my husband would hold her cheeks together this would
    force her mouth open and he would be sure to pour the medicine
    at the back while still holding her cheeks together.  By holding
    the cheeks together the medicine would slip down and she was 
    not able to cough it up.
    
    I hopes this helps, it did help us with Cailah.
    
    Kathleen
    

    
    Thank you all for the replies.  Bridget is staying on the amoxicyllin.
    What has been working is mixing the medi with about a third of a jar of
    blueberry/apple fruit (Earths Best).  Just enough to hide the medi and
    make sure she eats it all.  I will try some of these tips with her
    tylenol tonight.  Thanks so much, I love this file.
    
    Kathy
    

    A trick that our pediatrician taught us is to deliver the medicine with
    a syringe, placing it diagonally across the tongue and all the way to
    the back.  This approach gets them swallowing it, no matter how bad the
    taste.  Fast and effective.  Just be careful not to trigger the gagging
    reflex too strongly (back off if when necessary) ! 

My older daughter had an excellent gag reflex; Even if the medicine
tasted o.k., it seems (in hindsight) that it wasn't the taste, but the
consistency/texture that she objected to. Thick liquids or syrup did not
go down...always came back! (I must have the only kid in the world that wouldn't
eat vanilla icecream until she was over 2 yrs old!)

The only thing that worked for us was giving the medication in liquid form 
in dropper (oversized calibrated medicine dropper that you can pick up at a 
pharmacy). We administered it by placing the tip at the back of her mouth 
between the gum and cheek. The doctor said it bypasses her taste buds as well
as that area on the back of the tougue that made her gag. It has nowhere to go 
but down! At first, we had to hold her down, but after awhile, she didn't struggle 
and it made it easier for all of us....So, if you try the other 'dropper' methods
and they don't work, try this alternate location in the mouth and see if that does
the trick...Good luck (I had the same question in a previous version of this notefile!)

    
    I have tried all your suggestions and a few others.   The ONLY way we
    can get her to take the medi is by hiding it in some fruit.  Which
    creates a dilema because she must finish it all.  So we have to make
    sure she's good and hungry.  Its terrible.  Dr. told me to give her
    dimetap for her last cold, I couldn't get it in her and she could taste
    it in the fruit, so I just gave up on that because we're still giving
    her a preventative dose once daily of an antibiotic.  I hate this, its
    stressful enough when their sick, then they won't take their meds.
    And the Dr.'s office is no help whatsover.   This is my gripe of the
    day !
    
    KC

    Are you able to mix the medi in a drink and have her take it this way.
    
    Its a bind when the kids don't like the taste/texture..we're having to
    give Kathryn medicine that she doesn't like at the moment.  Its easy
    now she's 5 - she just pops a small piece of chocolate in her mouth
    afterwards to get rid of the taste - and we don't get any complaints!
                                  
    Jackie

    I Just found out that dimetapp comes in grape flavored tablets like the
    tylenol chewables.  It might be easier to give her this crushed in
    food.  She may even like it in her mouth.  It is meant for older kids
    but you may be able to use a half tablet or something.  Ask you doctor
    about the dosage.
    
    			Mary
    

    When our son was just a wee one we had terrible problems
    getting him to take his medicine too.  The only thing that
    worked was to physically restrain him, hold open his mouth,
    and squirt it in.  It was always very traumatic for
    everybody.
    
    As soon as he was old enough to reason with at all we
    gave him a choice: he could take it voluntarily or
    we'd restrain him.  As a "carrot" we told him that if he
    took it voluntarily he could take it as slowly as he
    wanted, with juice, or water, or whatever he needed to
    make it acceptible.
    
    He always chose to take it himself. But voluntary means
    one thing to a child and something else to an adult.
    We still had to watch him and continually urge him to
    take another couple of drops.  It was still traumatic,
    but much less so.  I recall many times when it took him
    close to a half hour to "voluntarily" take a couple
    spoons of medicine; take a drop, drink some water,
    take a drop, drink some water, complain, complain,
    take a drop, drink some water, complain some more,
    etc.  It really tests your patience.
    
    Now we have few problems with medicine, and sometimes
    he even asks for it if he doesn't feel well (he's
    now 10 years old).
    
    

    
    Some help may be to ask the Doc to prescribe less medicine, of a
    stronger concentrate.
    
    We did this all the time w/ Jonathan - but EACH time I had to ask. 
    They looked at me kind of funny at first, but everyone obliged.
    
    For example - Augmentin comes in varying strengths.  Jonathan was
    prescribed (for instance) 1 tsp of 250mg .  I would ask the Doc to
    prescribe 1/2 tsp of 500mg instead .... same amount of medicine, but
    it's physically less volume to struggle with.
    
    This made life *MUCH* simpler for me, because I always used a dropper,
    and could never get more than 1/2 tsp in the dropper.  I could always
    "sneak attack" 1 dropperful, but the 2nd dropperful was usually
    impossible.  
    
    They're a little hesitant to do it, especially since a lot of the
    antibiotics come pre-measured in the bottle, so they usually end up
    giving you twice as much med as you will need, and you have to toss
    some out - but hey, having extra also avoids the problems of not being
    able to get to those "last few drops" in the bottle.
    
    If they give you a hard time, try to stick with the "If I can't get it
    into him/her, then you may as well prescribe nothing"  Sometimes that
    gets forgotten about.  If they won't take the medicine, the medicine
    won't work.
    
    To tell you the truth, I was surprised to find that they don't switch
    to the higher concentrations - not too many kids enjoy taking medicine.
    Less(by volume) is better.
    
    -Patty

    
    Oh yeah - and the other thing too, is in the higher strengths, they're
    getting less "inert" ingredients (the sugars/dyes/flavorings etc)that
    they may be allergic/sensitive to.  
    Some of the meds have different flavors at different strengths too.
    I think that Augmentin is pineapple at 250mg and orange at 500mg (but
    it's been a while....)

    
    We're still mixing her one dose daily preventative med with fruit, but
    if she gets another ear infection, I will definitely ask for something
    stronger that I can give once a day as opposed to amoxicyllin 3 times
    daily.   I just ordered something from the PERFECTLY SAFE catalog, it 
    is advertised as a spillproof way of giving medicine to babys.  It
    looks like a pacifier on the end of a syringe and cost $6.95.  I
    figure I'll give it a shot.  Anybody else have any experience with this
    type of thing?  I'll let you know how I make out but I'm sure she'll
    reject that also.  
    
    Kathy
    

    
    I was never able to get anything to give "once a day" - just that the
    quantity that I had to give was lower, because the strength of the
    actual medicine was higher.  It still required whatever the normal
    frequency was (2-3xday).  
    
    Sorry if I was unclear....
    
    Patty

    Aaron took an antibiotic called Zithromax.  It has to be taken on an
    empty stomach (3 hours after a meal, 1 hour before a meal).  On day 1
    he took 1 tsp just once that day.  On days 2, 3, 4, and 5 he took 1/2
    tsp. once a day.  The antibiotic is stays in the body 10 days.  We
    would set our alarm clock for midnight and give it to him.  It worked
    for 2 infections, the third time we had to follow it with another one.
    
    You might ask your pediatrician about ZITHROMAX.  Our practice told us
    it's fairly new.  It's also the pink stuff, Aaron would take anything
    pink, the minute he see's that it's another color he would clamp that
    mouth shut.
    
    sandy