My 15 month old has an ear infection and is on Amoxicillin. I'm having problems getting her to take it. The first day she took it with just a little fight. The third dose she spit out. The 4th she gagged on but did swallow. The next she spit out. I just gave her another dose and she gagged on it really bad, to the point I feel guilty because she was having problems breathing. Any advice on how to get her to swallow it without forcing it down her throat or her spitting it out?
Try having the medicine flavored with and apple or grape flavoring. Honestly a 15 month old doesn't know what bubble gum tastes like so she probably doesn't like the flavor. That worked for us. If she uses a nuk, they make some to dispense medicine, which also worked for us. As a last resort you could take her in to the doctor and ask him to give and antibiotic shot and skip the hassel of oral med. Good luck
Have you tried squeezing (assuming you're using a dropper) the medication into the insides of her cheeks? This way it does not give your daughter a chance to spit it out. She will swallow along with her spit. This has worked with my 15 month old. What I also do is when my daughter closes her mouth really tight and will not even let me insert the dropper, I pretend to really like the medicine and act like I'm giving myself a drop. I get her dad or anyone else in the room in on it too and we all clap and smile. My daughter will usually run to me and want some too. Good luck!
I always use the syringes so I can squirt it further in their mouth and also do a little at a time. You can also mix it in some pudding or applesauce and feed it that way.
Best Wishes,
J.
I have found that if I put it in a little cup with just a teaspoon or so of milk my son will down it quickly. He thinks it is a game. The pharmacist said to make sure that you refrigerate it as it is suppose to help the taste. Good luck.
My trick has been to put the medicine in with a bottle/sippy cup of juice or milk. I just make sure to mix it with enough liquid to hide the taste of the medicine, but not too much that they will not drink it all!
Good luck!
You could try to hide it in juice - but Amoxicillin is pretty thick... or you could ask your dr for the pill form then crush it and hide it in food like applesauce, ice cream...
Good luck!!.
We have a little - and i stress little - 2 oz max bottle that we use to give our twin boys liquid meds. The bottle we got from when the boys were in the hospital and at one time it had Enfamil in it (pre-made, disposable-bottle formula). We dilute it with water, so that it will fit through the nipple and add just enough to get the dilution good enough for them to drink it all. As much as we don't like them drinking from bottles anymore, they love it, so with meds is the time we let them do it.
Your pharmacist might know where to locate such a small bottle, or if you can find a place that sells formula "already mixed", just dump the formula and use the bottle.
We don't use milk b/c we were worried about them wanting to drink "flavored" milk all the time, but water is no big deal to us.
I would check with your pharmacist or doctor about what you could mix the medicine into to make it easier. (juice, milk, food, etc) Also- try to make the idea of taking meds not scary. My daughter is permanently on meds three times per day,and one thing that we found is if we gave her a chance to "give" meds in an empty syringe to one of her dolls, animals, etc. she was much more receptive to it. I think then they understand much more what is going on. Just a thought!
This is the harsh way but it works. Take the syringe and open your childs mouth and squirt the medicine fast to the back of the throat it's a automatic reaction for them to swallow. It's bypassing their tongue so they don't taste most of it and it's done in 2sec. It's not the most pleasant way to do this but it works.
Now I just bribe my daughter who's older (6) and give her a treat or something good to drink when she's done.
Some moms have recommended hiding meds in food. I just want to comment that I took asthma meds as a kid and my mom tried to "sneak" it into my applesauce to get me to take it. I could still taste the meds and to this day won't eat applesauce. My 2 cents...
try blowing on her face...normally they suck in and you can get the medicine in...or try the dropper and just go a small squirt at a time, or give the medicine more, but less dosage each time (like 4 times @ 1tsp each instead of 2 tsp @ 2 times etc...)
