How do you get medicine into your resistant child?

[mountainash]

IME, there's a trick to getting the medicine far enough back to trigger the swallowing reflex without triggering a cough/gag/choke/vomit reflex. We used a syringe type dispenser and would squirt the medicine just to the side of the back of the throat--where the wisdom teeth would be. That seemed to make them swallow without making them cough.

[Mum2Es]

What's all this talk about getting them to swallow? I can't get the syringe into DD's mouth!

Bribery worked really well for the couple of times I gave her paracetemol over the couple of days she was sick. So it's all good.

[Waterlogged]

- DH's perspective....

http://www.greenwayfamily.com/serend...e-of-Doom.html

It's been rough around here....

[joyful mama]

honestly, therese will willingly take anything with bribery, but she *always* vomits it up.

so, here, I attempt tylenol for high fevers, and hope that SOME stays down. And I do lavender oil on her back and feet (works great, better than tylenol usually).

for needed antibiotics (she's needed it twice now for raging ear infections/mastoiditis) I ask for omnicef. Its very sweet tasting and only once a day, so I put it in about 1-2 ounces of juice, and tell her its time for her 'special juice', and she takes it. Its sweet enough and very well masked in juice, so it doesn't make her gag at all.

I used to have to pin DD down and prior her mouth open. I was calm and gentle about it and I would always tell her taking meds is not an option. You need XYZ for whatever. Finally after many months....maybe 6-9 (she hardly gets any meds) she started taking it willingly.

[HadassahSukkot]

I don't know if it is just our pediatricians, or the ones in our area, but the only paracetamol they will tell us to get is suppository... even up to 2-3yrs. However, when the kids had a case of roseola and bronchitis - they sent us home with an antihistimine and motrin (for the oldest) in liquid form.

The only way we could get the oldest to take his at first was the "pin down". We made it into a game and I did the face "puff" so that it goes down. We had to do something similar with the youngest, and he was under 3 months when this was going on (held him in arms, puff, nurse).

I seem to recall the reason our pedi was so suppository "happy" is that kids can vomit back or spit out medicine and you cannot be certain they took it all and may over-dose. I thought it was a little odd, but it has been easier to do that than wrestle just to get medicine they need in there to reduce a fever or ease pain. My mom said she thinks it is barbaric "Gee, they already feel bad and you shove something up their backside and make them mad at you" - but honestly, it doesn't seem to phase them after it's in. I joke that it's their German side coming out, as even adult medications come in that form for those of us prone to projectile vomit out anything unsavory.

[Zipporah]

Suppositories are pretty uncommon in Australia.
What brand are you using? Paracetamol is really hard to cover and the Panadol is particularly revolting, the chemist's own is easier to get down.

We've given up on Paracetamol/tylenol for ds because he will puke it up (he has oral hypersensitivity).
Ibuprofen/motrin has less of a bitter taste and we can usually persuade him to choke it down. (Jelly snakes are the bribe of choice around here.)
The one thing I learnt in nursing school is too always inject it into the cheek, not the back of the mouth unless you want everything to come back up

[Peridot]

we have much more sucess with Ibuprophen rather than acetaminophen here too.

For bad fevers I do offer bribes. A chocolate kiss or few m&m's does wonders...and we squirt in just a bit at a time to the back/side cheek place the PP mentioned.

Although bothe of them will drink it straight form the dosage cup now...

[Waterlogged]

ugh we are going through this problem right now. K is on abx for a staph diaper rash. no way i'm messing with that without abx.....apparently it tastes horrid and it takes 2 of us to get it in her. but it's better than ending up in the hospital with systemic MRSA or sepsis.