Little boy and medicine

[goofymom]

Hello all! I need help. I have a little boy who is almost 4 and we are having an awful time getting him to take his antibiotic. He has an ear infection his first. He has to take his medicine 2 times a day for 10 days. Every time we give it to him it either comes right back up:hurl: or he refuses to drink it. We have mixed it with everything we can think of...orange juice, capri sun, chocolate milk, coke, sprite...you name it. No matter how diluted he can still taste it. I have tried bribery-"you get a prize for drinking this" and begging to no avail. Anyone have any suggestions? We are supposed to leave for WDW in a little over a week and he must get well before then. I don't want to be looking for a doctor when I am down there. I feel like such a mean mommy for making him drink his medicine even though I know it is for the best. I wonder if there is anything to that song in Mary Poppins " A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down"? I am ready to try anything at this point. Thanks to anyone who can help us.

 

[DisJosh]

Can you get the perscription in pill form? Doing that and dilluting it in a drink might do the trick. I had more ear infections than I could count when I was a kid...I remember my parents crushing up the pill in a glass of water and that did the trick for me.

 

[SpongeScott]

From experience, all i can say is "good luck." Those anitbiotics can be nasty tasting and he is right, no matter what you do, you can still taste it. One thing that sometimes worked with ours is making a game out of it--see if he can drink it before you count to 10 and make a big deal out of it and have a nice treat when gets it down. Just a thought...

 

[DisneyCP2000]

I remember the days of trying to swallow 'icky' pills :lol: I ended up drinking them with orange juice. It tasted even more distusting but I mangaged to get it down :zipit:

You could try telling him that he really really really needs to take the medicine / honesty . You could also tell him that if he's sick down there, he'll miss out on all kinds of stuff. Tell him that you'd rather spend time having fun together in the parks rather than looking for a doctor or even medicine during the vacation. I'm pretty sure he'd rather have fun.


If you need medicine...There's a walgreens at I4&535, not too far from epcot.

 

[DisJosh]

Just put on your serious face and tell him the trip to Disney World is cancelled if he doesn't take the medecine.

 

[Debbie]

Getting medicine down is one of the bad parts of being a parent. It's still hard to this day to get the little one to swallow anything having to do with medicine. If he doesn't have breakfast before he takes his A.M. dose, the dose will come right back up.
I feel your pain, as there isn't any easy way to win this battle.

 

[Talsonic]

Try it another way.

Well, if the little guy can't hold down the medicine you might want to ask the doctor if an antibacterial suppository would be appropriate for his condition.

 

[SpongeScott]

Re: Try it another way.

Originally posted by Talsonic
Well, if the little guy can't hold down the medicine you might want to ask the doctor if an antibacterial suppository would be appropriate for his condition.

That's hitting below the belt.....but it works.

 

[tybroid59]

There is a lot of research that ear infectins would clear up with or without antibiotics because alot of them are viral in nature and dont respond .

You could start again ask the doctor for a different antibiotic some only need giving once a day which may help and be very firm.....isnt WDW a big enough carrot. I have spent mant years getting medicine into differnet children and some just wont its no reflection on the parent .

I dont know if you have to fly from where you are i failed geography but you may need to take some ear plugs for him if you do .

Good luck

 

[NowInc]

Originally posted by DisJosh
Just put on your serious face and tell him the trip to Disney World is cancelled if he doesn't take the medecine.

...Josh...you just made me spit water all over my desk.....

 

[The Mom]

I almost had to use my "last resort" option on my son. "If you can't/won't take the medicine, then we'll have to go to the doctor's office before and after school so his nurse can give it to you in a shot." I was absolutely serious...the office is less than a mile from my home, between home and school. I had cleared it with his doctor (also a friend ) and we were set to go.

And I agree with Tybroid...a lot of these "ear infections" are self limiting. The problem is determining which ones are...if it isn't, and goes untreated, the child can end up with permanent hearing loss. Unfortunately, cultures take about 3 days....which might delay treatment enough to cause a problem. Most pediatricians aren't willing to take the risk of being sued if they guess wrong.

 

[Debbie]

Originally posted by The Mom
I almost had to use my "last resort" option on my son. "If you can't/won't take the medicine, then we'll have to go to the doctor's office before and after school so his nurse can give it to you in a shot." I was absolutely serious...the office is less than a mile from my home, between home and school. I had cleared it with his doctor (also a friend ) and we were set to go.



And I agree with Tybroid...a lot of these "ear infections" are self limiting. The problem is determining which ones are...if it isn't, and goes untreated, the child can end up with permanent hearing loss. Unfortunately, cultures take about 3 days....which might delay treatment enough to cause a problem. Most pediatricians aren't willing to take the risk of being sued if they guess wrong.

I forgot about the shot option and boy does it work!

All I can say about ear infections is if this is your first one to deal with at the age of four; consider yourself lucky. My oldest son had so many and my ex-husband refused the ENT's advice to put tubes. Consequently, my son's speech was also severely delayed and he just finished speech therapy last year (5 years total). When my seven year old was recommended for tubes at the age of two, Don and I didn't hesitate. His speech as well as his vocabulary are great.

 

[Nut4Disney]

Just a spoonful of sugar ..........Never mind, I guess that doesen't work either.:animwink:

 

[DisJosh]

Originally posted by NowInc



...Josh...you just made me spit water all over my desk.....

:lookaroun oooooooook

 

[GenerationX]

I don't envy you, goofymom. We've been through this sort of thing many times. What has worked for us is the following procedure:
1. Sterilize one of those droppers from infant medicines (you may have an old bottle of infant medicine around somewhere if your child is still 3 - and very likely it is past its expiration date!).
2. Pick a time when your child's stomach is not empty or very full and the child is likely to be thirsty.
3. Pour a cup of your child's favorite drink.
4. Get a dropper full of medicine.
5. Dangle the drink in front of them, but explain they have to have the ear medicine first and show them the dropper.
6. The second their mouth is open, squirt a dropper full of medicine in, hand them the cup (quickly, before they think to cough), and let them drink.
7. Repeat 4 - 6 until the dosage is complete.

The advantages of the dropper are that the child's lips and tongue don't have to come in contact with the medicine, and you can cover the back of the throat with the medicine. Since the back of the throat is covered, it's easier for the child to wash it down with a favorite drink than it is to spit it out.

Good luck and have a fun trip!

 

[DMC-12]

Originally posted by DisJosh
Can you get the perscription in pill form? Doing that and dilluting it in a drink might do the trick. I had more ear infections than I could count when I was a kid...I remember my parents crushing up the pill in a glass of water and that did the trick for me.

I was a pretty sick little boy to...I was in the hospital alot..I had digestive problems, ear problems,...anywhoo... try to get it in pill form... crush it up and mix it with Vanilla or Bannana Pudding...the bannana would work better cause it has a stronger taste...and smell... plus...he thinks he is getting a nice treat!

or...a peanut butter sammich..it does not have to be a full sammich...just one piece of bread....spread the peanut butter on it...then mix in the well crushed (to the point of powder) pill into the peanut butter...fold the piece of bread and give it to him as a "snack".

Ooooook... I sound like Martha Stewart now.... :lookaroun

 

[goofymom]

Thank you everyone so much for all your advice.:animwink: I will try these ideas. It always helps to get advice from veterans who have been there, done that. I got his dose-or most of it-down him this morning. I truly feel for those who have had kids with recurrent ear infections etc. It is a test of wills and patience to get Evan to take his med and this is our first experience with antibiotics. This is his second antibiotic for this infection as the first one made him break out in a rash all over. Hopefully this new one will clear up the infection. If only it tasted better. We lost three doses yesterday from it coming back up when he took it.:hurl: Only 5 more days to go... Thanks again for the suggestions. I will try several of them-you guys are great!

 

[DisneyPhD]

There was some really good advice on this thread. My thought is that if he is throwing it up, it is not his fault he has a gag reflex or the med is not right for him. Talk with the Dr. about getting a different form of med (pill or the kind that dislove easy). and one you have to take less often. There are many different kinds of med for ear infections.

Not to alarm you, but my daughter (8 months at the time) had an allergic reaction to her penicilin her frist trip down to WDW (one week after she started it.) She had red hives all over her body and she swelled up. (some of the red bumps were in little "hidden Mickeys!) After talking to our Ped at home and stopping the med we decided to take her to Centra Care. They were great, picked us up and took us there on a Sunday morning, took us to the Drug store and even had a car seat in the van. It ended up costing 113, and insurance did not cover it. but it was well worth it to be sure she was fine. After some doses of cortizone her swelling went down and aside from the red bumps she was fine.

The point of my story is they do have good medical care at WDW for guests on vaction and I doesn't have to reck your trip.

 

[AliciaLuvzDizne]

whatever happened to good ol' ammoxacillin that (in liquid form) tasted like bubble gum... daaamn i used to ASK for that stuff when i got a little bit sick (even when i was WAY too old for it hehehe!!)


anyways... i would suggest telling him to take a biiiiig deeep breath, then just go for it... If he relaxes beforehand he probably wont gag it up...
have something sweet close-by anyways

good luck and i hope he gets well soon!!

 

[Yellow Shoes]

This won't help you through your current round of meds, but perhaps it will help next time.

There was an article in our newspaper recently about improvements in flavorings for prescriptions. Pharmacists were pretty excited about it, and said that these flavorings could be added to nearly any Rx.

There was an extra charge for them; a few dollars, perhaps. But a mother of a toddler knows that it is worth every penny to get the stuff down. (There were lots of flavors--cherry, grape, vanilla, root beer, banana, etc)

You might call around and see if any of your local pharmacies have heard of this (or try an i'net search for more info). Then next time you can take your script to one of those places.