Tips for giving medicine?

[dancingirl21]

J has his first ear infection and our pedi prescribed amoxicillin. He hates getting medicine out of the syringe. We try to squeeze some in his mouth and he screams and spits it out. I also tried a spoon and he took one bite then clamped his mouth shut. We basically held him down this morning and H squeezed it in his mouth while I held his arms. He probably got 2ml out of 6. Yesterday I tried to put it in the nipple if his bottle but that didn't work either.

Any suggestions for giving medicine?

[Deleted]

Did you have it flavored? Antibiotics in particular taste TERRIBLE. DS is awesome at taking medicine, but even he won't take it unflavored.

As far as making him take it, have your DH sit in a chair with LO in his lap facing out. DH uses one arm to hold LO's arms, and the other arm to hold his head still. You squirt the medicine into LO's cheek, and hold his mouth shut until he swallows. It sucks, but LO has to take the medicine.

[dragonfly08]

Jul 20, 2014 9:41:49 GMT -5 @supergreen said:

You squirt the medicine into LO's cheek, and hold his mouth shut until he swallows. It sucks, but LO has to take the medicine.

This is what I used to do.  It also helped if I stroked a finger down the underside of DDs chin/throat, too...it often triggered the swallowing reflex.

[Deleted]

How old is your kid?
I let DD do it "by herself" (I loaded the syringe and let her suck it out) last week when she had strep and it worked really good.

The pedi said it was also okay to dump it in a bottle for babies...but like only in an ounce or so...an amount you know they will drink to make sure they get it all.

But yeah, there was a time where I just had to hold her down and do it. Sucks, but we're all alive.

[potatopie]

squeeze his cheeks, this keeps 'em from spitting it out. and then blow on his face afterwards to get him to swallow.

now that DS is a little older, I can squeeze a bit from the syringe into his pursed lips and he'll swallow that.

[scribellesam]

I second having it flavored by the pharmacy if it's not already.

[degal99]

We used a syringe and then stuck a pacifier in immediately. We had to do it 2 or 3 times with just a little med each squirt though. It worked really well, and seemed to not be as traumatic for DD.

[dancingirl21]

It is flavored. I don't think he hates the taste so much as us forcing him to take it.

DS is 12 months. I did hand the syringe to him and let him play with it but he doesn't know how to squeeze it.

Thanks for the suggestions. I might try to put it in 1 oz of milk in a bottle.

[pugz]

It's a 2 person job. Dh holds her with her head tilted back, I use the syringe to get it in the side of her cheek. Usually once she realizes it tastes like berries she swallows and then I squirt the rest in. We keep her head tilted back until she swallows it.

[lulu21]

We have a medicine pacifier. There's a spot to add the medicine and J just sucks it down.

[Ashley&Scott]

Ditto @justdairy when they are finally old enough to do it themselves it is AWESOME. M is 2.5 & has been doing it himself for a year or so. Recently he prefers drinking it out of the little cup instead of the syringe.

[pinkpeony08]

It sounds really mean, but it took two people. Baby lying on the changing table, one person at her head to hold her arms down and hold her head between their arms so she couldn't move. The other person would squirt the medicine in the side of her cheek and then blow in her face right away. They automatically swallow when you blow in their face. This was after trying seeming everything else. Now she takes it very easily, so we just hand her the syringe.