Tips for getting medicine down

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if your child never needed medicine. Unfortunately, generally at some point in their young life they will require some form of medicine.

Not all medicine is created equally. Some just does not taste nice.

So how can you persuade your child to take their medicine?

It is when they refuse to take their medication, that we can be left scratching our heads as to how to get the medication down.

It can be particularly tricky when they are in pain or have discomfort.

Getting a baby or child who refuses to take medicine is not a task for the faint hearted.

It can be heartbreaking attempting to help your child by administering medication especially if they are young or the medicine tastes horrible.

We have formulated some top tips that seem to be the most successful at these times.

• Be decisive. Floundering about is not helping either of you. All it will do is waste the medicine and then you won’t know just how much they have actually ingested.
• If possible it is best to administer the medicine as quickly as possible with the minimum amount of fuss.
• Get help. There comes a time when help will be needed. Having someone else to assist can help to reduce the amount of struggle. Help can be in the form of a distraction or the other person can help to soothe the baby. If all else fails you have an extra set of hands to help in gently restraining flapping arms to be able to get the medicine in the mouth.
• Holding the nose. I know it sounds a bit harsh but it is a proven, albeit controversial method. Sometimes it is critical for the medicine to be ingested. At these times a quick blocking through a holding of the nose will momentarily make them swallow. Of course it is only for a split second and be careful not to scare them further in doing so and we reiterate it is only for a moment. This is recommended as only the last resort as it is distressing for all and only in cases where it is vital the medicine is ingested.
• Some medicine can be placed in drinks. This needs to be checked with the pharmacist first and you need to be careful as they may not take the drink and again if it is not completely finished you are never quite sure how much medicine was taken.
• Alternatively, you could do what some mums have done as a clever hack and placed the medicine in a popper with the side closest to yourself cut out. The child thinks they are drinking the contents of the popper when in actual fact they are drinking the medicine. It is somewhat of a sneaky trick and ordinarily we don’t recommend trickery but it is important to share all tips to help your child be back on the road to healthy.
• Check with the chemist about alternatives. Sometimes pharmacists are able to give alternatives or provide the same medication in a different form and that may alter the taste.