16 month old China Bambina has a cold, and thus needs various oral medicines. She likes using a straw, so sometimes we can get her to take a swig. I’ve tried mixing some of the stuff with honey water or apple juice, but that usually doesn’t work. Sometimes she will drink from a spoon or the little medicine cup. If it’s at night, I’ll put it in a bottle, and when she’s asleep let her have a suck, and usually a small does will be injested no problem.
Usually, she won’t take it by one of the above methods. Then two of us have to pretty much hold her down and use a dropper to squirt it in her mouth. China Bambina is not big on that technique, and I’m hoping someone out there has an alternative?
While we’re at it, any suggestions on how to administer nose drops with a minimum of fuss? She really does not enjoy it when we have to hold her down and spray it in, but nothing else works. Help?
Father of four chiming in here: sometimes you just have to force them. Mrs. Ivorybill and I would much rather not take the tag team approach, but eye drops, nose drops, and ear drops always seemed to require it until the kids got a little bit older.
You might want to call your doctor or pharmacist and see if you can get a version of the medicine that tastes better. Only seldomly do we get an antibiotic or other liquid that doesn’t taste remarkably like candy. The few times we’ve gotten yucky meds, we’ve usually been able to get the doc to prescribe an alternative.
As a last resort, we’ve been known to mix the meds with something our kids really love to eat or drink but rarely get. Good luck to you!
No help on the nose spray here, but the two things that worked for me as far as oral meds were
these little syringe-type deals, where you draw up x amount of syrup and squirt it as far past the tongue as it will go. This way the little buggers don’t have to taste it as much. Just be careful you don’t gag 'em.
and
If it’s possible and won’t change the efficacy of the medication, mixing it with fruit juice and freezing it into a popsicle. It’ll help for the sore throat too.
Don’t know if they do it yet in China, but lots of pharmacies will mix in different flavors to make the med more palatable.
Good luck, and hope the bambina is feeling better soon!
Hahahahaha!!! Minimum of fuss… hahahahaha!!! nose drops… hahahaha!!!
Sorry, I’ll be better.
As said, nose drops? Hold 'er down, squirt 'em in and suck it out. (Oh yeah, the nasal aspirator is loads of fun…)
Something that might help is a potpourri boiler with a dropperful of pepermint oil and a dropperful of euchalyptus oil. It smells like medicine and it clears out my nose.
Also, lifting one side of the crib up 4-5" (a stack of magazines under each leg works well) well help her breathe a little easier.
Soupo did and Katcha does (16 months now) take their medicine well with the dropper deally. Maybe we’re just lucky.
-Rue.
We use a 5ml dosing syringe (no, it doesn’t have a hypodermic needle!), with most medicines, the kids will take it this way without a fuss, but if they are reluctant, I can use the syringe to squirt it into the corner of the mouth; they don’t find it quite so hard to spit out this way.
thanks for the commiseration. Just got done with another round of nose drops (have two seperate ones at least 10 minutes apart) and caugh syrup administered via a dropper/syringe type thing.
At about 23 pounds, China Bambina can hold her own in a fair fight. Of course, we don’t play fair and always outnumber her by at least 2-to-1 for the medicine.
Sheesh, there’s gotta be a better way than waiting until they are old enough to be bribed with chocolate.
Hey China. Just wanted to let you know that I completely understand your predicament. My four year old was sick at birth and has had a proclivity toward bronchitis and such ever since. So naturally, if someone coughs in the next county, you can bet your boots that my Bonnie is gonna catch it in a few days!
I’ve tried different methods of masking the flavor. Sometimes, if I’m giving her a strong medicine, I mix it in pancake syrup or something else really thick and sweet. (NOT honey, of course, because of the reported risks to babies.) We’ve also tried mixing it in juice, but I learned something important on that score: Don’t mix a half teaspoon dose of meds into a full cup or bottle of juice. They may not drink the whole thing and then you wonder how much of it was actually consumed!
Finally, I give vitamin C and Echinacea–for a toddler, dissolved in juice–in conjunction with the medicines. It just seems to get my kids better more quickly.
