Giving a Toddler Medicine?? How Do You Do It!

Hi Christina,

I went through this with my daughter. It was terrible! What ended up working was adding the medicine to a cup of pudding (chocolate seemed to mask the taste better than other flavors). Her pediatrician said there was no problem adding it to a preferred food/drink as long as she atedrank the entire serving. There have been times where I have even added a little extra Hershey's syrup if it is one of the stronger tasting antibiotics and this helped as well.

Good luck!!!

Mix it up really good in a small amount of ice cream or pudding. The smaller the serving of ice cream or pudding the better. That way if it isn't great, he can probably still get down the whole amount.

As a pharmacist I can't recommend mixing the medicine in any food or drink because the child will either not finish the whole thing or next time won't even look at the food/drink even if there is no medicine in it. Buy popciles let your little one start the cold pop (numming some of those taste buds) then give the medicine and put the pop back in fast (now you have followed the medicine with plenty of fluid). The stonger the flavors the better it works (may have to go with sugar versus fruit juice this once)

Christina:

As a mom and a nurse that has worked in pediatrics, here is what I have done:

Plan A: My daughter has to take medicine for asthma every day. She is 2 and we were given powder to mix with food. That was a huge struggle and we wasted a lot of medicine. We discovered that there was a chewable tab in the same dose and have switched to that....weirdly she loves it and "my medicine" is part of her daily routine.

Plan B: if you can't find some type of solution to get him to do it voluntarily (which at this age they usually don't) here is the next option...

Use the smallest syringe dropper that will fit all the medicine in (3 ml syringe works well with this age). Hold him in lap with arm closest to you tucked behind you. Hold the other arm and hold his face against your chest. Take syringe and slide it into check on outside of teeth (have to have it in far enough that they can't spit it out) and gently squirt in a little at a time till gone. You can also just hold him and have another person do the syringe. Get everything ready, then do it quickly and its over. Give lots of cuddles, loves, or stickers/priase when done.

this is less drawn out and I find less tramatic...child has less time to get worked up etc. I would not recommend putting it in bottle or drinks....I have found that kids then associate something "bad" with bottle/cup (with long term medicines) and it can make problems to get them to drink afterwards.

Good luck-this is a toughie!!

Christina:

Walgreens offers a flavoring that you can add to the child's medicine. This might help with the taste issue. Check with the pharmacist.

Not for all kids--but has worked for my 15 month old since she was 6 mos (she had 7-10 ear infections in her first year of life): Give it to them while they are sleeping. My kid is a night "sucker"--she makes these slurping/sucking noises all thorough the night--so for night meds, I just slip it in very slowly while she's asleep and she just slurps it down.

however you do it, make sure the medicine is cold, it doesn't taste as bad that way

I don't know if they can do it after the fact, but they can add flavoring to the medicine at the drugstore. You can call CVS...good luck

My daughter couldn't stand the strong antibiotic we were given for her ear infection. My solution? I mixed it with her apple juice. Heck...any juice will work. The juice is sweet and counteracts the yucky taste of the medicine. She loves all kinds of juices, so I think we used one of the thicker kinds... V8 splash or something like that. It worked really well for us. Good luck!

With our daughter, hiding medicine in food or drinks never worked. So we had to go the "tough love" route and hold her down. The nurse at our pedi's office showed me a good way to hold the child so he can't kick you. You sit on the floor with your legs open. Put the baby down on the floor in between your legs, with his head up near you. You lay your legs down over your baby's arms. That way, he can't flail his arms up and knock the medicine away; his legs can't reach you to kick you; and you have both hands free to hold his head and put the syringe in his mouth, hold it against his cheek, and release the medicine. It wasn't fun doing it that way, I'll be honest. I would have much preferred hiding it in food. But since that never worked, this way got the job done.

I used to mix it in with my soms juice in his sippy cup. Only half full so I wouls be sure he drank it all. Good luck.
P.

Talk to the pharmacist - most everything comes with a huge choice of flavors these days. Also see if you can put it in applesauce, juice, yogurt or something else (probably something cold or room temp - you often can't mix meds with something hot). Forget bribes - at this age, they don't care. If you can make it a game, great. Otherwise, disguise it!

My daughter is two and she is on preventive antibiotics every day. I always make sure that the pharmacy gives it to her in a flavor she likes like grape or cherry. So maybe speaking to your pharmacy and telling them to give it to you in a different flavor might help. Also when you give it to him, take him by surprise, don't let him know you're coming and just put it in his mouth and dispense it, trust me, he will swollow it.
Good luck

Its a little late this time but its easiest when they get to this stage to get it as a pill crush it and put it in a spoonful of applesauce, yogurt, pudding, etc. you could also call the pharmacy and see if they can flavor it. Another suggetion is my oldest was pretty smart when it came to hiding the pink stuff but you can get some that are not pink so its easy to hide in milk, on yogurt, ice cream, etc. Or when all else fails hold him down squirt it slowly inside his mouth between teeth and gums. Good luck.

once my son learned to use a straw, I put his meds in a med spoon and cut a straw down and give it to him that way.. my daughter always needs a juice chaser for her's.

The easiest, and it has worked for both of my children...pretend you are giving their lovey or one of their favorite stuffed animals medicine and then ask your child if they want a turn.
I would just say, "bear your being so good taking your medicine to get better etc" and I wouldn't push it, would even let them pretend to give it to their stuffed animal. It has worked like a charm on both kids and they take all their medicine. Of course they get lots of loves and kisses and words of praise after they do it.
Good luck... :-)

Chocolate milk. With LOTS of chocolate!

How about mixing it on a spoon with applesauce?

Can he take it with a bite of yogurt? Yogurt has a pretty strong taste ... So it might mask it, if you can mix it with food. My son is 17 months and now spits out anything he doesn't trust is food like tylenol, gas ex, etc. So this has worked for me.

My Dr told me to slide it into the side of his mouth b/w the teeth and cheek and push it in slowly so he does not spit it out. Also that way he can bite on the syringe but your still able to give the medicine. I usually give it slowly while my son is lying on his changing table so its headed in the right direction. also some antibiotic can be mixed into juice or milk, check with your pharmacist.
Good luck.

A little about me:
A part-time working mom to a 19 month old son.

what works with my grandaughters, and i did the same when my two were young, is to slip the syringe in the side of his mouth, far enough that he can't push it out with his tongue,then dispense the meds a little at a time, giving him enough time to swallow so he doesn't gag, but don't linger too long. this way you bypass most of the taste buds. i'm also a believer in being honest with your child, letting them know this is medicine, that it may not taste the best but is given to make them feel better. the faster they take it the sooner it's over and they can go their merry way. good luck.