Friday, January 16, 2009

Looking for advice!!!

I know I'm not the only mom in the world with this problem, so I'm looking for a little advice here! Christian woke up with a sore throat yesterday which wasn't too much of a surprise since Nate has been acting lethargic and not eating for a few days. So we headed to the doctor for the dreaded throat swab and it came back positive for strep!! Just great!

Now here's the issue. Christian will not take medicine. I'm serious. It's horrible. You can't reason with him, you can't trick him, you can't bribe him and holding him down just makes him throw up and cry hysterically. It's awful. Thankfully he doesn't need much medicine so I usually ask for that awful antibiotic shot, so we can just get it over with and not deal with it twice a day for ten days. Well, the kid is 3 1/2 now and they gave him amoxicillin. I thought he could handle it. I couldn't have been more wrong. Even with his most favorite treat, an "ice sandwich" (also known as an ice cream sandwich) as a bribe, he would have none of it. So Ryan and I held him down and he gaged and choked and kicked and hit us. I think I used about half the bottle just trying to give him a 1 tsp dose. And we've got 9 more days of this. He won't take chewable meds either. I crushed up some chewable pink Tylenol last night and put it in a sprinkle jar and sat a bowl of ice cream in front of Christian and then asked if he wanted sprinkles. Of course he said "yes" so I sprinkled the Tylenol on and that seemed to work pretty well, but later he told me he wanted more ice cream but that he didn't like those sprinkles. Oh for Pete's sake. So I'm trying and failing with this dear strong willed child of mine. So share away....let me know what tricks you use. I tried to sneak it into his drink this morning and he had that figured out with the first sip.

8 comments:

Millicent said...

this is totally Natalie. I had to get some meds in her in the fall, and I finally told her that if she didn't take the meds for me, i'd load her up and take her to the hospital so they could give it to her in a shot. Terrible, I know. But it worked.
Good luck.

The Marklund's said...

wow... can you mix it in with some yogurt or icecream, or is it not effective when mixed in? like, blended in, where you can't even tell it's medicine... is that possible? does it taste so bad that he'd be able to tell?

the mccollums... said...

my mom used to give us spoonfuls of peanut butter with the medicine hidden in the middle...I think the peanut butter taste is so strong that it hides the medicine especially if its crumbled up. But...hmm, I'm not a mom so I dont even know why I am commenting...I am keeping all this in the back of my mind for "one day".

Anonymous said...

So here's what our nurses tell our mom's of strong willed children...
a) hide it in there favorite food that has a strong flavor.
b) scrape some frozen juice chips and hid it in that since the concentrate juice has a strong flavor
c)hide it in any food that has a strong flavor

The theme is "strong flavor for the strong willed". My kids hated amoxicillin. I was a mean mom and just made them take it. They haven't needed therapy yet!

Will pray that the strep doesn't spread to everyone...and they boys get well soon.

- Laurie

Aggiema (Michelle) said...

That sounds like my daughter. I don't remember how w got her to take the meds at that age. I will ask my hubby and if he remembers I will comment again. You may have to take something away from him to get him to take it. Like No Thomas the Train until you take your meds and then get everyone to make a huge deal out of what a good boy he is!

Amy said...

It's official. Nate has strep too. So all three of my kiddos are taking antibiotics now. Amoxicillin for Abby and Nate, and Omnicef for Em. Oh the joys of sharing! Emma has to hold her nose and then drink OJ to get hers down. Abby just takes it like a woman. And Nate is almost as bad as Christian. Emma has to hold his feet so that I don't get kicked in the head while giving it to him!

heatherlm said...

Good luck Judy! Hope all the little ones are feeling better real soon. Keeping my fingers crossed that McKenna doesn't get it.

RSchuurman said...

Ed says to try getting it flavored at the pharmacy. Maybe that'll help?! He also says that other alternatives include IVs, suppositories or conscious sedation. All this from your friendly, neighborhood PA! I'm guessing that you don't want him taking care of your kids now! ^_^