Help please! - How to get medicine into a 3 year old??

msoulz wrote: Erin is sick and has to take 1/3 teaspoon of a steriod. Dh battled with her to get he first dose down. She can taste medicine in juice and applesauce. Does anyone have any creative ways to get yucky meds down??

Oh, I should mention, when she had a fever the other night I put just a little dab of tylenol, bubble gum flavored, on her lip so she could taste it. She puked it up. So just putting it in the back of her mouth won't work, she seems to have conditioned herself to puke out medicine . . .

PLEASE help a girl out!!

PrairieMom replied: can you offer a reward? get the med down , you can have some soda or chocolate or something? Does she value anything? My boy will do anything if I let him play Nintendo a while.

msoulz replied: Excellent, perhaps chocolate chips . . . but I am still afraid she will barf it up . . . but maybe in juice even though she can taste it she may drink it for the chips.

Groovy, that's one on the table! Thanks!

Kentuckychick replied: The reward is worth a try for sure... sometimes it's truly mind over matter and when a kid thinks they can do or sets their mind to doing it... they can get it done. I have a cousin who's 16 and I distinctly remember threatening her when she was about 13 and I was babysitting her. She had salmonella and HAD to take her medicine (no questions asked) or she wouldn't get better. I knew it was hard for her, and I knew that it was nasty... but I also knew she had to get it in. I remember telling her there would be "absolutely no puking in my presence!" and I pinched her nose while she swallowed it and then gave her a big bite of chocolate and sip of coke afterward to wash it down. It worked.

She still uses the plug and wash it down method to this day.

It's so much more difficult with a little one though. If you absolutely can't get it into her call your pharmacy. I know it's no fun, but most meds come in suppositories for that exact reason.

msoulz replied:
I hope it doesn't come to that but if so, thank you , that is another great idea.

I just gave her tainted juice and promised chocolate chips when she finishes . . . we shall see!!

boyohboyohboy replied: I am not as nice as you, I have dh hold them down and in it goes..
but I guess that wont help if she throws up..also sometimes when Jake would act like he wanted to retch, I would blow in his face that made him take a breath and stop him from throwing up.
I hope she takes it!
buy lots of choc chips!

lisar replied:
I do the same thing. Raygen refuses to take her medicine. And with her having to take one twice a day right now, its no fun

luvmykids replied: Steroids are tough....that taste comes through just about anything. The one you have is liquid, right? The only way we got that down was in a HUGE spoon of chocolate syrup.

cameragirl21 replied: Tell her it's magic potion and if she drinks it, a fairy will come and leave her a gift in her room when she sleeps.
Then buy something small at the dollar store and leave a card with glitter glued on it and a little note from the magic fairy, etc.
I'm all about using a little bit of magic and trying to turn something nasty into something exciting.

Nina J replied: I don't blame her, steroid medicine's are foul Even in tablet form, the taste is just gross.

Good luck, though. I don't have any suggestions.

msoulz replied: So far bribing her with the chocolate chips has worked - but the antibiotic isn't as nasty as the steroid. I wish I had chocolate syrup!! That could work really well too. Thanks for all of the ideas!

Hillbilly Housewife replied: LoL - I was going to answer "my kids know better than to do anything but open wide for their meds, sorry!" but it looks like you got it under control.

gr33n3y3z replied:
Ha that was Ed and I with Rick with his one med. that he had to take when his bronchitis/asthma got out of hand.
And if he threw it up Ricky got another dose until it stayed down for a few min. per his Doctor instructions guess what he learned fast to keep it in lol