My son is 6 years old and has his first bad ear infection. The doctor put him on 10 days of liquid antibiotics 2x a day, and needless to say, the first two doses were kind of like torture! He refused to take it quickly all at once and would spit it up if I put any more in his mouth than he felt he could handle. Basically, it took about an hour no exaggeration. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make it less painful for us both. I dont' want him to just throw it up but it is like agony waiting for him to take his sips, all the while crying and asking over and over why. I let him sip the water after each one, and gave him some fruit snacks to get rid of the taste, but he didn't understand the concept of just getting it over with. He also attempted to mix it with water but then refused to drink it. Having my husband try wasn't much better. I am just dreading the 18 more times I have to do this and am hoping SOMETHING will help.
Will he use a syringe? They have them at the pharmacy. My kids like to suck the liquid out before I can push the plunger in. We've also used candy or juice motivation. Just something to suck on or sip to take the taste of the medication out of their mouths. Good Luck -S.
He's six. He's perfectly capable of understanding that his ears really hurt, and if he doesn't want them to hurt again, then he needs to take the medicine. I'd understand this if you were talking about a two year old...but he's SIX!! My youngest had chronic ear infections and even at age two, she understood that the medicine would make her feel better. You really need to just stress that to him...that if he doesn't take it, his ears are really going to hurt very badly.
Just take a deep breath... :) ...and know that he CAN do it, and that this is just a little bit of silliness on his part. I know medicine can taste awful...but it's just a part of life in the modern world and we all have to do it. Pharmacies can flavor medication, but I've found that really doesn't help any.
If it really doesn't go well tomorrow, if he really won't take it...and I suspect he will if you really explain in plainly to him...ask your doctor for another alternative.
I couldn't get my youngest to take an antibiotic when she REALLY needed it...her ear infection got so bad that she had an open sore on her eardrum...they have antibiotic shots that hurt really bad and come in a series of three. (It may seem a little off, but maybe tell him if he doesn't take it, he'll have to have three shots instead?) I felt terrible about the shots, but she was only 12 months at the time and I couldn't explain to her why it was important...and yes, the shots did hurt very badly. Far worse that vaccines.
Good luck!
I put my dtr's bad tasting liquid medicine in sicky sweet kool aide. First I pour the medicine into the medicine cup, then I add just enough sicky sweet kool aide into the cup as well. This way it's not too much to drink so I know all the medicine goes down. And marshmellows afterwards if he likes them sweetens the taste buds and makes it difficult to spit something out. As Mary Poppins said " A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down".
ask the pharm for a plastic syringe (no needle obviously) so you can squirt it down the back of her throat then he'll hardly taste it.
Have you tried mixing it with applesauce or something like that? Just make sure he takes it all.
(Is it the pink stuff? Isn't it bubblegum flavored?_
One teaspoon of medicine ... followed by one teaspoon of chocolate syrup. Worked for us. And if she swallowed the medicine quickly, she got TWO chocolate syrups. I feel your pain. My daughter is so medicine phobia. She's built it up in her mind that it's about the worst thing in the world. But the chocolate syrup thing reall helps us.
Good luck. K.. Let us know what works for you!
Sometimes the pharmacist can add a flavoring (cherry, etc.) to make it taste better..........you might want to check to see if that's possible? Good luck!
I'm not sure if this would work with a liquid medicine, but you could try it. I live in Japan and often the prescription medicine here is in powder form. It is very bitter. If you mix the powder with a little water and freeze it in an ice-cube tray, it takes the bitter taste away completely. Children's presciption medicine here is always powder form and contains sugar to sweeten it up. You could try adding a little sugar and mix it with water or maybe apple or grape juice, and freeze it. Popsicle medicine!
Chocolate syrup! My 5 year old was on augmenten and it was suggested to give him the chocolate syrup after he took the medicine. He couldn't even choke it down it was so bad, and I totally understood after I tasted it. The dr. said we really shouldn't have done it this way, but my husband took a medicine syringe and put a teaspoon of chocolate syrup in there and then added the medicine. He let it sit for a few minutes and then gave it to our son. He sucked it down and we never had a problem one after that. The dr. said it shoulld have been done seperately, but I figure it all went to the same place at the same time and I knew it was gone. Good luck! Oh, and strawberry syrup works too if he prefers that!
Sorry - removing post. It had already been suggested.
Ohhh...I hear your pain. We finally poured it over a small bowl of chocolate icecream...stirred like crazy and voila...our son was asking for more. Not my proudest parenting moment, but it worked. And yes, we did it at both breakfast and dinner, as it was a twice a day dose. I was actually concerned that we wouldn't have enough in the bottle to finish the 10 day cycle, because there had been so much spitting and gagging (and tears!) during the first two days. Good luck!
I feel your pain. My 9 yr old daughter is the WORST at getting to take medicine. She still can't swallow pills, so I live in fear that she'll need an antibiotic. Did you get it flavored at the pharmacy? That can help. The other thing we do is have a can of her favorite cola ready along with some M&M's. She plugs her nose, takes a bit of the medicine, takes a sip of the cola, eats a few M&M's and repeat. She holds her nose until she gets to the M&M's and this helps prevent her from tasting the medicine at all. It's a lot of rigmarole, but after dealing one time with it taking her 2 hours to take one dose of medicine, we were desperate!! Good luck!
The pharmacy can flavor it like watermelon or other flavors...do you think that'll help?
Sugar... I know people hate to give their kids sugar, but it does help the medicine go down and it's only a few days. Also, make sure you are giving him probiotics to help with his bowels. Antibiotics can cause many issues in the digestive system. If you have him drink Yakult or eat yogurt, his body will be better prepared to handle the adverse reactions.
Good luck!
I know this probably sounds terrible but it worked: I had a syringe (without a needle) and when my kids were very little and had to take medicine I would say "we can do this the easy way or the hard way"! They hated getting shots even more than the yucky flavor of medicine so they would quickly take the liquid medicine and we were done! Of course, I would always let them swallow juice or something to get rid of the bad flavor but this worked for us and I never had any problems getting them to take their medicine. Then never knew there wasn't even a needle in the syringe and that I couldn't give them a shot even if I wanted to!!! Unfortunately, I can't use this little tactic on them any more - they're 17 and 14 - altho, I have tried!! lol!!
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