How do I get my toddler to take his medicine?

[Scotland2016]

We are on day six of my two-year-old's illness and he's pretty miserable. We went to quick care on Sunday (day three) and the doctor said it was a virus, nothing we could do. He got worse on Monday, so we took him to the pediatrician yesterday (day five). She said it's a "virus that has turned into a bacterial ear infection" and prescribed antibiotics. She said it's a particularly bad virus and will probably last two weeks.

My son has sensory issues and is in feeding therapy for being such a restrictive eater. We can't get him to take the antibiotics. We restrain him and squirt it in his mouth with the syringe, but he vomits it up. We can't sustain this for 10 days, two times a day. We're going to call the pediatrician this morning, but does anyone have any advice on getting the antibiotics in him? Thank you in advance.

[CNM]

Unfortunately, I think you're stuck with it.  Force feeding a person is extremely hard.  I wonder if a pill would be better than a liquid antibiotic?  Less flavor to deal with? 

When my kid has to take medicine he doesn't want (although, he enjoys the flavor of a lot of kids' medicines?!?!), I'll tempt him with a piece of candy or chocolate to eat immediately after as a reward and try to squirt it as far back in his mouth as possible to avoid spit up and minimize the flavor.  That's about the best I can do.

[I'm a red panda]

My nearly 2 year old just had to take tamiflu twice a day for a week. It was flavored the same flavor we usually use for medicines, but she hated it.
We had a hell of a time with it for a few days, until I told her she could have a chocolate chip, then if she took her medicine she could have two more.
I will admit, she does not have sensory issues or feeding issues though.

Then she would come and ask for it at breakfast and bedtime.  Kiddo loves chocolate chips.


Can you get ear drop antibiotics? Or does that only work if they have tubes? The ear drops were so much easier for us to give than oral antibiotics.

[Margie]

Not sure if this would work with his eating/texture issues but you could give him some vanilla ice cream or let him suck on an ice cube - the cold will numb the taste buds and he won't taste the medicine as much.  Maybe scratch his back or brush his hair right after taking it the sense of touch is very strong and might help distract him too. 

Good luck!

Hope he is feeling better soon!

[Chrissy]

Ask the doctor if he can do the antibiotic shot.  It's one-and-done.

You can also ask the pharmacist if he can try a different flavor.  We did bubblegum, but I think they've got mint and maybe chocolate.

[zhelud]

When my kids were prescribed antibiotics I used to mix the liquids into juice and get them to drink it. As long as they drink the whole amount it should be fine. I've also used milk, ice cream, and soda, depending on the original taste/texture of the medicine.
It all goes together in the stomach anyway.

[Mariposa]

When my toddler has to take medicine, we put it on top of ice cream, and he just eats it all up. I like the juice idea above, too, especially if you're dosing multiple times a day. When my toddler was a baby, we used to give him medicine through one of those pacifier medicine-dispensers, but that stopped working when he got a bit older.

[Scotland2016]

Thank you for the replies! We are going to try some of these suggestions tonight.

[kimmarg]

I don’t know what the right ‘carrot’ is for your kid but this is the scenario where I am 100% for bribery. My kid had to do a nebulizer for bronchitis and we watched TV while she took it. So if food doesn’t work maybe 1 episode of Thomas the Tank engine if you eat your medicine. (The episodes are about 10 min)

[bogart]

My kid had ear infections (not tons, but a few) when he was little, and we'd get prescribed amoxicilin (if memory serves, it may not...) which as I recall was the dosing/frequency you describe.  Like your LO, mine would vomit it up (no sensory issues or anything in our case, he just didn't like it, already didn't feel good, and reacted to having yucky-tasting liquid effectively forced down his throat.  Go figure.).

Somewhere in navigating that, I learned (because we went back to the pediatrician to get help and this was the solution provided) that an equally effective treatment (I think ... I'm not a doctor) is Zithromax given once a day for 5 days. 

Obviously that doesn't 100% eliminate the problem, but it does reduce it.  Zithromax is (I think) broader spectrum and something they try not to use as a first line of defense but -- if you can't get the medicine in the kid, it's not going to work, so ...

[Little Aussie Battler]

For us, bribery sometimes works. The other method that has been quite successful is to either let the little one pick a friend (toy) to help give the medicine, or if they are big enough to help themselves (usually holding the syringe while we administer the meds).

Good luck!

[GizmoTX]

We asked for pill medication that could be crushed & then mixed it into cinnamon flavored applesauce. It can then be swallowed with far less tasting issues. I learned this trick when my mother could no longer swallow pills. Then our toddler son turned out to have extremely sensitive taste & refused all liquid medicine.

[RelaxedGal]

Facebook recommended this creamer, I forget if it was mixed with Tamiflu or right after,
https://www.internationaldelight.com/products/coffee-creamers/flavor-faves/hersheys-chocolate-caramel/
Commenters said it was better than Hershey Syrup as masking the awful Tamiflu flavor. 

Actually now that I think abut it; I think it was mixed with the tamiflu because commenters said that even if the medicine was flavored (cherry, etc.) you couldn't taste that through the creamer either.  Must be strong stuff.

No first hand experience, but I had to share that.

As for Zithromax as suggested by bogart:  The pediatrician will prescribe what works in your area/what the bacteria in your area aren't immune to.  We were on vacation in Florida when our daughter got an ear infection.  We suggested Zithromax because it has worked best for us in the past, but the local Urgent Care said their bacteria work better with Amoxicillin.  Apparently we had brought our bacteria south with us from Massachusetts because after 3 days the Amoxicillin had no effect.  Back to Urgent care for Zithromax (or maybe had our Pediatrician call in to local pharmacy? I forget).  She felt better pretty quickly.

[TrMama]

Another vote for Zithromax. We've requested this for years. Not only is it only once a day dosing, the actual dose is much smaller than for penicillian (I think it's 4ml vs 10 or 15ml for my kids). So it's less yucky stuff for them to keep down. Plus, according to my kids the caramel flavoring is much more palatable than whatever flavor penicillin comes with.

[Dr Kidstache]

A brief public health message: Puhleez, folks, don't request certain antibiotics! We have a public health crisis in antibiotic efficacy. A physician will prescribe the best antibiotic for a given condition. Overprescribing of antibiotics + prescribing broad-spectrum antibiotics due to patient pressure is wreaking havoc on our ability to treat bacterial infections. Asking for alternatives because of ease of dosing or some other perception is a significant public health problem.

For children with acute otitis media that failed wait-and-see without antibiotics and who have sensory issues, a one-time penicillin injection is usually the best option.

[BlueHouse]

I used to barf up all pills or just couldn't swallow them to begin with.  I had to take a course of medicine and my mom just crushed up the pills and spread them into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because that's about all I would eat at the time.  Remove the crusts so he's eating less bread so he's hungry for the next one.

[TVRodriguez]

Hahaha.  I had quite a production for my daughter to take her (admittedly really horrible tasting) antibiotics.  We received the capsules instead of the pre-mixed version, so we could open the capsule and mix the powder with our choice of food.

1. I mixed the powder with shaved-ice-syrup (we have a shaved ice maker).
2. DD drank some ice water to numb taste buds.
3. DD drank entire dose of medicine-powder-syrup mix.
4. DD drank rest of glass of ice water.
5. DD ate a bite of kiwi (super sweet flavor helped).
6. DD ate popsicle of her choosing.
7. DD washed out mouth with fluoride rinse.

My motto is, "whatever works."