Are you talking panadol?
With the syrups I rarely use panadol, unless they're bad enough to need both, because they don't like it. Especially DD2. She struggles majorly. They are ok with the taste of nurofen, so thats what we use.
Panadol goes ok in a strawberry milkshake. Other flavours of milk are too different in taste & don't work.
Anything else I use bribery... coke when desperate. My kids never ever get coke, so it can work. The older girls can finally have capsules, so we use them. DD2 is still getting used to it, with a big drink of juice to make sure it goes all the way down.
I still struggle to take pills sometimes :/

A friend of mine tried suppositories when her DS was about 18 months old. She's never looked back. Not sure if she'd still do it now he's older though.