how to get toddler to take medicine?

B

bagel

Registered User
Hello Ladies,

My toddler is resistant every time he needs to take his cough/cold medicine. I have tried hiding it in yogurts, soups, milk, juices but he spits it out and if I force him to take it by holding him down, he will stick his fingers into his mouth and throw up. I am at a loss how to get him to take his medicine. Any creative ideas that worked for you would be much appreciated!!

Thank you!
 
I would pretend to give it to my daughter's stuffed friends like Elmo or Zoe and say that they really liked their medicine and how good of a job they did. Also, I would have her give the medicine to her stuffed friends and explain to her what the medicine does. I would also give it to her and have her take it herself. Make it "fun" like say how good it tastes and make it a game. Good luck!
 
My son would take any medicine if I mixed it with Yakault. Yakault is so super sweet that it disguises the taste. Hope this helps.
 
I haven't tried this, but my friend gives her LO ice cream first and gets him to hold it in his mouth long enough to numb it. Then she gives the medicine. I mix the medicine with juices (more than one to disguise the taste) and then get him to suck it up a straw as fast as he can. Good luck!
 
Our trick is to load it into a syringe and then to give it to our little one, she squirts it into her own mouth and thinks it is a fun game. Worth a try!
 
Don't tell him its medicine, say its juice. Most kids medicines are super sweet anyways so they won't know. Try putting it in a tiny fancy bottle or something.
 
It kills me to admit this but I say, if you have your medicine, you can have some chocolate....
 
I'd like to ask a related question, if I may.

Our son is 7 months old, so I don't think he has reached the "intentionally making himself sick to bring up the meds" stage yet. But everytime when we feed him Calpol / paracetamol he would instantly throw up projectilely - something that he never does normally. It gets very frustrating as he would bring up his entire feed AND would continue to suffer as there's just no way to get any meds down him. Any tips?
 
sazzy, we did that with our first as well... then one time... oops! mummy forgot to buy them...oh, well, next time. and so on...nothing to be ashamed of there! we also let the kids squirt the syringe themselves, too!
 
geomum said:
Don't tell him its medicine, say its juice. Most kids medicines are super sweet anyways so they won't know. Try putting it in a tiny fancy bottle or something.
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even if i suggest it is juice, it doesn't seem to work. i tell him it is OJ or grape juice, but as soon as it is not meeting his taste expectations, he spits or vomits it out.
 
anotherone said:
I'd like to ask a related question, if I may.

Our son is 7 months old, so I don't think he has reached the "intentionally making himself sick to bring up the meds" stage yet. But everytime when we feed him Calpol / paracetamol he would instantly throw up projectilely - something that he never does normally. It gets very frustrating as he would bring up his entire feed AND would continue to suffer as there's just no way to get any meds down him. Any tips?
Click to expand...

yes, i can relate to that. my son was demonstrating the same. hence the question.....sometimes the disguise with yogurt, apple, soups, chocolate cookie works, but a lot of the time it ain't working. maybe you and i should get together to exert peer pressure!!
 
How old? My daughter was a bit of a booger between the ages of 1 and 2 - if we wanted her to have it bad enough, NOTHING else worked, we just had to force it in her mouth and hope that she swallowed some of it. SOME things we could dilute or mix with juice (but ask your doctor first because some things, such as some antibiotics, are unsuitable to do this) - but other medicines we couldn't, or the taste was too strong and she'd just reject the juice.

Now I think she likes the sweetness of it - she sometimes even asks for more!! She will happily take her medicine now with very little fuss. Maybe she just got tired of fighting us ;)
 
Hi,

I can relate to this - my daughter used to shut her mouth tight and spit everything back up from a very young age. It was a battle every time we tried to give her some medicine and the medicine very often ended up all over her if not on the floor. We tried everything and when it was really necessary to give her some medicine, cruel as it may sound, we sometimes managed to get her to swallow a little bit by forcing some into her mouth and holding her nose at the same time so that she had to swallow. (I know - I felt really awful and usually had to get her Dad to do this).
If she just needed some Paracetamol then I used suppositories. On a trip home I discovered that this was the popular and sworn by method of many mums and they mainly used a brand called 'Paralink' so I stocked up and use them here. (I'm not sure if you can get that brand here but I'm guessing that you could get paracetamol suppositories??)
Anyway also just to say that my daughter (14 months) has very recently (last 2 weeks) taken calpol from a spoon without much hesitation so I'm hoping that will go for other medicine as well when the time comes :)

I hope my comments may be of some use :)
 
I have a 5-yr-old and 3-yr-old, both of whom have spat out medicine since age 1, and no amount of bad cop (pinning down, nose pinching, etc) or good cop (bribes, sweeties, chocolates) behaviour helped. Since then, I've become an expert medicine hider! It can be done. Believe me, if my boys think there's a hint of medicine in their juice or food, it gets spat out.

My tips:
for fevers/pain: use panadol suppositories, available over the counter from the pharmacist in Watsons/Mannings. The brand is Ben-u-ron. There are two strengths depending on age of child. Again, they are (understandably) very resistant to this, so I do it while they are asleep or if wiping their bottoms after they've been to the toilet. A latex glove, a bit of vaseline, it's over in a second and they might squawk, but it's too late then!! ;-)

for colds: Polaramine (again, over the counter from pharmacist). It's an antihistamine, so dries up the runny nose - has very little taste and you only need a tiny amount (1.25ml for age 2-6). Very easy to hide in a Petit Miam yoghurt (mix thoroughly) or in a strong-tasting juice like Ribena

Calpol: blackcurrant flavour, hide in Ribena
Nurofen: orange flavour, hide in orange juice or pour over a chopped up orange

Some other tablets can be crushed up and hidden in ketchup or baked beans.

HTH
 
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