I really feel for you Sarah, I can only imagine how hard it is to give a child medicine when they dont want it as DD loves the taste & even says to me sometimes "I have a tummy ache, I need medicine mummy" LOL (Of course I dont give it to her when she asks for it, only when she needs it)
One thing that I have done which could be why DD finds it easy to take medicine is I've always used a syringe (sp?) never a cup & since she's turned 3 in April anytime she needs medicine she gets to be a big girl & do it herself, meaning I put the medicine in the syringe & she puts it in her mouth & sqeezes it herself.
Maybe if you offer for him to do it himself it might seem "fun"?
I dont know what else, sounds like you've tried everything! My sister has probs with her kids, always has, they're now aged 5 & 7 yrs & I find it so frustrating to watch.....
Good luck, I hope something works, poor little fella needs his medicine to get better
We have this problem with my 2 year old. We sat with her for 45 mins one night and made her have her medicine (panadol, 39.1 temp !!). She did take it with bribery of a marshmellow.
I would get him to try the dimeapp too - the purple one is a nice blackcurrant taste.
How is he with Panadol? We bought panadol suppositorys' the other day for my 9 month old....i had the lovely task of 'inserting' . Its awful, but works faster, and doesnt seem to effect them as much. My mum suggested doing it in her sleep, which worked. She just thought i was changing her bottom.
we put the medicine in chocolate or caramel topping - it was my mum's suggestion as that is what they do for the patients at the nursing home she works at, mid though if he spits it out it WILL be messy.
It's a tough one Sarah. If he does spit some out, don't try to top it up because you have no way of knowing how much he has actually consumed and risk over dosing. So just finish the dose for this time and then give more when due.
Some tricks to try;
distraction - balloons, TV, toys etc. On the rare occassions DD won't take medicine (very rare - she usually asks for more!) I pop The Wiggles on for a few minutes and she is in so much awe that doesn't realise what's happening.
Try a bit of role play. Zander give teddy some medicine to feel better (or Mummy or Daddy). Now it is Zander's turn.
Make a game of it. One I used on my sister was "I bet you can't do X" (she'd do it - always something easy like hop on one foot). "Well, I bet you can't do A!" and so on and so on until I got to "I bet you can't swallow all this before I count to 5!" and she'd usually do it.
You could try giving it in his sleep. I know some kids will actually take medicine in their sleep because they're too groggy to do anything else.
Try not to squirt it directly into the back of the throat because it can actually cause a gag reflex and they are more likely to spit it out. Putting it in the cheek usually works better.
OMG MG, you are a legend. I said to him "show me how fast you can drink your milk" & it worked!!! He guzzled his chocolate milk in less than a minute WOOOHOOO!
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Thank you.
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