giving antibiotic liquid - need tips!

DansMom wrote: Daniel came down with his first ear infection on Sunday, and it's quite acute, so he is now taking an antibiotic (his first ever---can you believe it?) Anyway, he is becoming increasingly resistant to taking the medicine from the dropper. Any tips on giving a resistant child medicine and not having half of it spit back out? It doesn't seem to matter whether I'm firm and forceful or cajoling and calm. Logic and reason hasn't worked yet, but we'll see tonight if bribery does the trick... I don't know what else to try!

BTW, the urgent care doc detected a heart murmur. I know these are usually innocent, since I and most of my sisters have a murmur, but just one more thing to stress about, you know?

jcc64 replied: I have a murmur, as does my middle ds. The vast majority of murmurs are completely benign- but it sounds like you know that already.
With meds- have you tried giving him a choice about how to take it? I've found that if I ask Corey if she wants to use the dropper, a small cup, or a teaspoon, she will usually take it much more willingly.

amymom replied: Ok he is older than my daughter was when I had to 'force' meds down her throat, I never had to force my son. My daughter swallowed pills by the time she was three because she took so much meds it worked for us. (aside: for pills you use a straw for them to take the water and it creates a swallowing action after you place the pill on the back of their tongue. Maybe that would work if you place the liquid in the back of his tongue then he took a sip of a juice box or something)

Anyway these are things I used with my DD:
1. My hubby would hold her in an upright position facing away from him (toward me) he would have control of her kicking legs, arms etc. I would press up against her to keep her from hurting me. AND then I would squeeze her cheeks with one hand, stick the dropper in with the other and force the meds to be swallowed (which was hard with her reflux, I am remembering Dan has reflux too??? I may be remembering that wrong)
This takes time but eventually it would work.
2. When I was alone I would lay her on the floor, position my body to hold her arms and let her legs kick away, same technic on her mouth.
3. Bribery, we picked out a special item, put enough marbles (anything like that would work, coins, pebbles etc.) in one jar to cover each dose of medicine and an empty jar, I explained that one marble moved for each time med was taken, and if ALL the marbles got moved she could get the special item. Once we used coins and she got to keep the coins at the end but only if ALL the coins moved. If they didn't all move then Mommy got to keep the coins. It was All or none. be careful, I caught her trying to move the marbles without me, so I put them up with the meds after that. Sneaky 18 month old The other issue with bribery is that it becomes expected by them. But that is controlable when they are older if you can be firm.
4. Put the meds in the cheek that seems to work sometimes better too.

I can't think of anything else. Is the medicine flavored? I am impressed this is his first time with antibiotics though. WOW! That is great. To test if your child can take the pills you could try, tic tacs or small or split chewable vitamin pills or M&M minis, for a test item. That is what I did when my daughter was about 18 mos old. Then I talked to the peds and she has not had liquid meds since.

Good luck, I hope he feels better soon.

amymom replied:
That's a great idea too. He will feel like he is in control, when he has choices.

gr33n3y3z replied: Try other ways first if you can this is the last resort

Lay him down and squeeze his cheeks together and sqirt it in and keep holding them together until he swallows it. And he will.

Jamison'smama replied: We have done the cheek pocket and the paste (from the link) on Jamison--she is resistant to EVERY medication --it is a hideous ordeal so I completely understand any difficulties. Check out the website and see if anything there will work for you. Good Luck! Poor little guy, does his ear seem to be painful to him?

Dr. Sears' medicine taking hints

JAYMESMOM replied: I have never had to force Jayme to take medicine they are yummy to her regardless of the taste. Yet when she gets sick and dehydrated I have to force liquids down here. If you squirt them in the cheek next to the lower gums they have to swallow. I always position her across me with her head in my left arm and do it with my right.

Good Luck.

Mom2Kurtis replied: You can also try squeezing the dropper on the side of his mouth. Thats what I had to do a few time to my son.

Good luck!!

~Roo'sMama~ replied: Can you put in in a sippy cup of juice to disguise it? Or if it's really strong tasting you could put it in some chocolate rice or soy milk and the chocolate might cover it up more. As long as he's getting it it doesn't really matter if he realizes what it is or not. Good luck!

DansMom replied: Thanks you guys---yes, I have some things to try tonight!

The ear pain has been intermittent. He'll be fine, happy and acting pretty normal, just itching it once in a while. Then, out of the blue, he'll tank and cry about the pain (that's what drove us to urgent care on Sunday). Tylenol has helped when that happens. He's also quite sleepy, not as energetic as usual, but no fever or cold symptoms.

b&bsmom replied: I have worked in daycare so I have seen all the tricks. With my children my daughter is tough but now will take a sip of medicine a sip of choc milk. My son is a little tougher for the most part he takes with no problem and prefers a medicine cup or spoon. If he is resistent I tell him don't you drink it and then he laughs and does it as I have a look on my face and say I can't believe you drank it. For the really tough ones ( which don't happen often now but did when he was younger) I lay him on the floor with his legs around me If he is using his arms to bat me away I put my legs gently above his arms. Then I will gently squeeze his cheeks to put medicine with a dropper in.THE KEY to making him swallow is to blow in his face after you put the medicine in this causes them to kinda take a breath and swallow it. Let me know if you have to try it and if it works. Hope this helped.

amymom replied: I didn't think about what Stacy said, but boys are very competitive, so if you can make it a competition that might work too. What I mean is....You have something to take and he has his meds, who can do it first. Of course he always wins!!

Good luck I hope it is going well.

ediep replied: wish I had some advice, but Jason is the WORST medicine taker in the universe.
Hope Daniel feels better soon

DansMom replied: I cannot believe this: the offering of medicine on a spoon, with a preparatory conversation about choices between that and the dropper, worked like a charm. This morning too, he shook his head at first, but he ultimately took the medicine willingly and even licked the spoon! I can now, in retrospect, see how I expected a battle and set that battle in motion with my own attitude. If he were a high needs, combative kid by nature I wouldn't blame myself, but he's so easy going in general that I should have realized a choice was all he needed---not to see this big syringe coming at him and an anxious, "this isn't going to work and you're not going to like this" look on my face!

amymom replied: WTG Yeah Dan.

mom2lilnick replied: That is great, I am glad he took it, since I wasn't going to have any suggestions if all the other mom's great ones didn't work. Nicholas takes several daily meds including daily antibiotics and since he has taken them since he was a tiny baby he is never a problem. He knows which are the yucky ones and goes running and then opens his mouth, takes it and says "all done"

ediep replied: awww, Daniel is such a good boy!!!

coasterqueen replied: Who would have known. Now that would NOT have worked for Kylie. Hope Daniel gets feeling better soon.