How Do I Get My Son to Take His Medicine

Offer him something he likes the taste of after his medicine. My daughter doesn't like the taste of her vitamins so instead of ignoring it or fighting with her about it, we offer her a little water to "wash the taste out" and then a dried raspberry or cookie if she wants. We give her both occasionally at other times and have never felt like it was a bribe in any way. It's simply trying to help her solve a problem.

I use a syringe instead of a spoon or dropper, because it gives you more control when dispensing to a struggling toddler and there is less risk of spilling the entire or part of the dose. Dispense the medicine slowly into the pocket of his cheek (makes it harder to spit out) and offer a drink right after. If you have to, hold him down... but if he is open to bribery (maybe a piece of chocolate or gummybear AFTER he takes his meds) you might get him to cooperate.

Hope he is better soon, good luck!

I'd ask your pharmacist. Putting the antibiotic in certain foods may render it less potent and may not treat the pneumonia fully. Your pharmacist may know of an alternate administration for that particular medication that may be easier.

It would be great if kids were like dogs, and blowing in their noses would cause a swallowing reflex. Unfortunately, we don't work that way.

That's my advice. It should be a simple phone call!

My sis-in-law is a nurse who works specificaly with kids taught us a great way. Pin him down if you have to by placing his head between your thighs and have his arms under your legs. Take a syringe and stick it in the very back of his cheek, by the molars. Dispence small amounts at a time and after each portion blow in his face. This will cause him to hold his breath then swallow. This has worked great for our kids when they refused meds. He will scream...but he will be just fine. Hugs and kisses when its all done. Good luck!

I still have a huge stain on my mattress from my toddler, who is now 11.

Bribery...treats (popsicles and jello jigglers would be good for your little guy). Hmmm... ask the pharmacist if you could put it in jello or juicesicles?

I hope he gets better quickly,
S.

My son is only 5 1/2 mos, however, we use a dropper and put it WAY back behind the molar, we put 1/2 or at least a small dose first, have him swallow a few time, and then go for the OTHER SIDE... and repeat. If I need to, I go back to the first side. I try to do it when he is hungry, or at least getting ready to eat, he's more apt to swallow/tongue thrust. My niece, who is now 12, had this protocal until she was almost 4. My dad owns horses and this is how he gives medicine to them - so he showed me and my sis how this works. it's awesome! When DS had to have an oral vaccination, most of it was coming out and I knew why, the nurse just put it on his tongue - not. So I suggested my way and it went down without a hitch.

You DEFINITELY have to be the bigger person and have a treat and LOTS of love afterward. Just don't go about business.

A medicine dropper (large size eye dropper) or a medicine syringe that is created for the same purpose. Hold him, open his mouth and squirt it to the side of his mouth, in the cheek. Pneumonia indicates it's probably an antibiotic and it's extremely important that he get his full dosage on time, all the time. If you still have problems with him takng the meds contact your doctor immediately before the virus becomes resistant to the antibiotic and he ends up in the hospital on IV drugs.

This is going to sound a bit mean (but no one likes holding his/her child down either), but hold his nose closed when giving him the medicine so he has no other choice but to swollow it.

Use an oral syringe and put the medicine right into the cheek pocket (back where the molars would be). Follow up with a chaser of some kind. I think that at almost two we were using a spoonful of honey or sugar. Today we use a small dish of pirate booty.

Two is a bit old for this but for a younger kid you put the medicine back in the pocket and gently stroke the front of their throat or their cheek to get them to swallow.

I agree with the other posters, if you have missed doses due to spitting it out you need to talk to your doctor about it. It also might be possible to change antibiotics to one that is better received. Antibiotics also come in different concentrations, make certain you've got the strongest solution of the type you are taking, a stronger solution means less volume.

Hot chocolate (well, warm) made with Hershey's and milk, and shaken in a bottle or sippy cup covers up the flavor of durn near anything, and the consistency remains the same (which can be a problem in mixing it with straight syrup).

So too, if you've "lost" a lot of the meds, the pharmacy is usually more than happy to check with your doc, and give you the missing doses.

Whoops! Forgot to add:

1) If he's eating solids you may go the pill route (we did right around age 2 for many things. Some he'd swallow whole (kiddo HATED the taste of liquid meds), others we choped into quarters and tucked them into bites of food

2) Regardless of deliver method, make sure kiddo doesn't SEE you do any of this. Plenty of time for the "it's good for you" or "listen to me" speeches later (oy). More important to get the meds in them

T., it looks like you've received a ton of great advice, and based on your comment I'm adding "letting him do it" to my bag of tricks too.

I wanted to share one trick that has worked for us. Since the antibiotic that we get always seems to be bubble gum flavored, we add it to the pre-made strawberry milk. The strawberry flavor overpowers the antibiotic and bubble gum flavors and the thick texture hides the medicine, plus both are bright pink so he can't tell we added it to the stawberry milk. The only downside we've experienced is that after he's done with the course of medications, he always begs us for more strawberry milk! We never give it to him otherwise, so it becomes an extra special treat instead of a battle.

When this happened with our daughter we ended up making popsicle's with either water or juice. She loved getting a nice cold treat and she never thought it tasted icky!

I hope something works for you and your family!

~S.

Be the bigger person! If it takes two to hold him down, do it. Squeeze the cheaks so the mouth is open enough to put the dropper to the back of his mouth and plug his nose. Seems like torture, but it works and it's for his own good.

My son came down with pneumonia when he was about 1 yr old. Daycare called me at work my son was running a temp. I came got him, took him right to the Dr's office, and he sent us right to the hospital to get his lungs x-rayed. We think he had RSV. He'd been coughing and wheezing and I was at my wits end. We used a cool mist humidifier, a nebulizer, albuterol, I can't remember what it was but some asthma medication for bronchial spasms given to him with a face mask which he hated so much. I was so afraid he'd end up in the hospital in an oxygen tent, but since I was diligent in making sure he took his medicine (and his crying broke my heart), but not giving him his meds or giving up when he spit them out was not going to help him get better. I invented a hold where I could give him his meds when I had no one else at home to help me. I put a towel on the floor, got his meds ready next to me (got them into the med squirter, etc) put my son on the towel, then sat down with him with his head between my thighs. With my legs bent up a little, I could hold off his arms and legs, then use one hand to get a finger between his back gums (this was easier before he had teeth), then hold his mouth open while the other hand squirted the medicine into his cheek a little at a time so he's swallow and be so careful so he wouldn't choke. Sometimes he still managed to spit it up, and then I'd have to reload and try again if most of it ended up on the towel instead of in him. Afterward I'd hug him and soothe him and offer him his bottle to get the medicine taste out of his mouth. We got to the point where he'd still struggle against it every time, but he calmed right down when we were done because he'd know it was over. It's hard to get through, but their breathing passages are so small, it's very hard to keep the mucus from clogging things up. The albuterol thins the mucus so your baby's cough can be more productive (spit more of it out) - the goal is to get the mucus out. (So, cough sounding worse at first is a GOOD thing.) Ask your Dr about using saline (2 cups luke warm water, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda (NOT baking powder) with a bulb syringe to rinse your son's nose out every so often. Squirt a little saline up his nose, then use the empty bulb to suck it all back out, empty into a wash cloth and repeat. Baby will hate the process, but breathe much better when you are finished. It was hard, but the Dr and others said I did good and I did what I had to to save his life.

Hi T., I'm sure I'll catch some flack for saying this, but can you bribe him? Give him an m&m or cookie or something for taking his medicine? My 4 year old was born with a cleft lip and palate and has had 3 surgeries so far, so lots of medicine as you can imagine.

I started calling the liquid medicine "candy medicine" and that helped a little. Are you using a medicine syringe?Sometimes he was more willing to take it if I let him squeeze it into his mouth himself (I would help hold it there, but give him the "control"). Good luck!

Add it to his juice or milk , works with my 19 month old

Call the the doctor and tell him the situation. Ask for his help. There may other flavors of meds. This truly needs to be fixed.