3 Year Old Refuses Medicine

[Sarah_H]

I need suggestions on how to get Zander to take medicine. He has a dreadful cold with his nose going like a tap & the pharmacist suggestied Demazin to give him a bit of relief. He will not drink it from a cup or let us syringe it into his mouth. He has to be held down & cheeks squeezed toget him to open his mouth. Now he has started spitting it out at the same time. We have tried disguising medicines in drinks in the past & he won't take it that way either. Bribery of a treat afterwards doesn't work either.

The other thing is ow do I know how much actually went in when he spat so much out? I suppose I just have to wait the 6 hours before thinking about giving him more.

[shellbell3]

Maybe try squirting the medicine to the back of his throat that way he has to swallow it? We had to do that with Ash at one stage but now she loves all medicine!

[Alipralli]

I wish I knew! Emy spits out all of her medicines too - soooo annoying! Especially when its Demazin, with the blue colouring....grrrrrrr.....

Anyway, there is no way to tell how much he actually swallowed when he spits it out, and it can be dangerous to guestimate how much it was too, coz it is very easy to overdose them the next time. The only thing you can do is wait the 6 hours.

We have to do this at work when patients vomit soon after having tablets - unless we see the spewed up tablets ourselves, and can actually identify what they are (easy when it is just panadol, and you know that is the only tablet they have swallowed in ages, and they vomit almost straight away, impossible when they take a lot of tablets), we have to assume that they are still inside the patient, and not give anymore until the next dose is due

[aussienic]

I don't usually have any trouble giving medicines to my boys anyways.. We offer medi water afterwards. Not sure if thats why it has been relatively easy. They drink the medicine then get medi water which is obviously just water added to the medicine cup..

with my very stubborn almost 3 yr old we tell medicine will make him feel better.. We talk about sometimes it tastes yucky but if he wants to play with his brothers or just run around he needs this to make his body strong..

I hope that helps.... do you have any tips on giving a 7 month old medicine that makes it less stressful for her lol..

[PinkPalace]

Sarah

you could try these options

If he bites down on the medicine cup this is ok - just tip it back while he is biting blow in his face.... sounds weird but work

Or try blowing in his face while using the syringe

Mix in honey/ chocolate yogo or the likes? if you make a big deal about how yummy it is and how he cant have any... it is sure to make him want it!

[MantaRay]

I have the opposite problem - if one of the boys needs medi, the other ones wants some too LOL! Maybe tell Z that J needs some medi - you could even put an empty syringe into her mouth - and see if that makes him want some too? Or offer it to him on a spoon "like a super-dooper big, grown up boy"? Otherwise I am all out of ideas!!

[saslia]

Originally Posted by Alipralli

I wish I knew! Emy spits out all of her medicines too - soooo annoying! Especially when its Demazin, with the blue colouring....grrrrrrr.....

You can get it colour free now!!

[Lee:-)]

Chocolate or strawberry ice cream topping works for some kids..

So frustrating isn't it!

[Antheia]

Lily does it too so i hold her nose so she opens her mouth and use the suringe to squrt it to the back of her throat so she has to swollow it.

[Ezz]

You could also try dimetapp rather than demazin. It tastes much better & it's the same active ingredient.

[Ezz]

Nic - For Calvin, I put my finger in his mouth so he sucks on my finger. Then I squirt the medicine down the side of my finger. Works really well.

[aussienic]

Originally Posted by Ezz

Nic - For Calvin, I put my finger in his mouth so he sucks on my finger. Then I squirt the medicine down the side of my finger. Works really well.

Thanks Ezz I will try that next time.. It is very stressful giving her panadol when she screams and spits it out.. and of that fails I am going to give it in a medicine cup and just let her drink it

[~breeze~]

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

[mbear]

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.

I dont know if this has helped...

[kitten2b]

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.

[Mother Goose]

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.

HTH and hope he feels better soon!

MG

[Sarah_H]

Going to try some of those tricks MG Thank you.

At the moment it's in cocolate milk & it's not working.

[Sarah_H]

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!