3yo refuses to take medicine - any ideas?

julie2710

When my DS had chickenpox at the age of two I made a game out of applying the calamine lotion. I poured some into a bowl, got two paint brushes, stripped him off and said "ok lets paint Cameron" He had a great time covering himself in calamine lotion whilst I painted his spots!!!:D As far as the medincine goes, it a hard one - I used to offer a small white chocolate button then switch it before he closed his mouth! Luckily he happily takes medicine on his own now!
Good luck.

debsthe1

Always used to mix in the small fromage frais pots or else had one pinning little one down while other used syringe to squirt into cheek.. other thing to try was baby pureed fruit mixed with medicine. They do grow out of that phase, but so hard on the parent dealing with it - good luck.

spendingmad

I have not been giving her calpol or any other medicine she does not need. I don't give either of my kids medicines of the odd cough or cold most of the time I them then get on with it unless REALLY poorly.

She is however crying out in the night and can not sleep soundly. All night, last night the itching was driving her mad. Dr told us to give her piriton to ease the itching so this is what i am doing.

I will also try honey in the bath, and I have been told to try oatmeal in the bath water also. I would much rather give old-fashioned home made remedies ago but sometimes modern medicine does work a little better!!

Just read the paint brush idea - that our game for tomorrow morning!

jack*tigger

Have you tried giving her the Piriton on a spoon ?? Maybe she associates the medicine with being pinned down and having gack squirted down her throat !! Sorry that sounds harsh - it isn't meant to be - just looking at it from her point of view.

Maybe if teddy has a spoonful of medicine too ???

I have to say that Piriton worked beautifully with my kids. Because of it both my kids were just spotty - no itching at all !

slummymummyof3

Use bicarbonate of soda in her baths - it helps to dry the spots out more quickly and doesn't have the horrible drying effect that calamine lotion has.

ailuro2

We tried everything when DD was 5 and had chickenpox, the best thing we discovered was cactus gel, it's actually called caxctus juice miracle gel, we found it in a local chemist and decided it was worth a try, that soothed her spots and let her get a better sleep, before that we'd tried eurax, calamine,piriton, nothing seemed to help.



I pinched the pic off an american website, ours eventually went out of date, but we used it for lots of other things, works a treat. Hope your DD gets better soon. Honey and chocolate spread are both good for disguising meds, but if she's only 3 she might not have had honey yet.

Gingham_Ribbon

spendingmad wrote: »

She is however crying out in the night and can not sleep soundly. All night, last night the itching was driving her mad. Dr told us to give her piriton to ease the itching so this is what i am doing.

Poor wee thing! It can be a horrible, painful illness. How likely is she to take it if she can have something sweet with it? (Like ice-cream?)

I love the idea of 'painting' her. I wish I'd thought of that when our youngest had it.

Paparika

This takes me back when ds was small, i had fun and games getting him to take medicine.

but this is what i found. take a popsicle take a little off, add the medicine, give them popsickle

callow

I had this trouble when my daughter was little.

If she needed paracetamol for pain or fever I would give her a suppository. You need to get them prescribed by your doctor.

I am a nurse so I didn't have a problem giving it to her. They are very tiny and easy to insert.

jellyhead

If she's 3 then she might prefer a bit more control over it. We had this battle with my youngest but he had only just turned 2 so he wouldn't have been able to get enough medicine into him without spilling, and we were in hospital so they needed to know he'd had the whole dose and not spilled any. He had IV antibiotics and suppository painkiller in hospital but he had to take a week's worth of oral antibiotic when we were discharged.

Hospital staff showed me how to blow into his face so he had no option but to swallow. It did work, but he's stubborn and would make himself vomit if possible. I don't think an older child would appreciate having their face blown into.

The medised is an option - do they still sell that? pharmacists are wary of selling medicine for younger children nowadays - I wasn't allowed tixylix for my 4 year old last week when I tried to buy it (the cough and cold remedy). Medised tasted nicer than piriton. Try taking piriton syrup yourself - it really is vile, it's slimy and makes you feel sick for a long time afterwards. It could perhaps be disguised in ribena.

My 4 year old submitted to the ordinary cough syrup this week, but only if he had a cup of ribena nearby so he could have it immediately to take the taste away. He also needed calpol, and one thing I noticed is that if he'd just had an ice pop/lolly he couldn't really feel or taste the medicine so that might be an option.

Bicarb in the bath did more for my children than calamine lotion which feels unpleasant on the skin. I also put a camomile teabag into the water, it calms irritated skin before bed.

I hope she feels better soon. Mum says I was a nightmare when I had chicken pox at 3, and she preferred when my siblings had it as babies.

Oh, one more thing - I once disguised piriton in a jelly, you know those ready made pots of little stars jelly (I could have made my own, but he was poorly and was really excited about the little pots, choosing which animal he wanted on the lid etc.). I opened the lid, put some onto the spoon so the jelly was broken up a bit so he wouldn't notice the piriton, and squirted it on. It only worked with a 2.5ml dose though - he noticed when I tried the 5ml dose.