How can I get my 2 year old to take Augmentin??

redroses

Wed, Jul 16 2014, 9:44 am

My spirited 2 year old has a double ear infection and is on a 10 day dose of Augmentin. We all know how awful it tastes and after 5 days (10 doses) of crying/pleading/threatening/bribing/you name it WE ARE BOTH DONE with fighting. She won't even consider it, and is extremely suspicious of any way we try to sneak it into her (mixing with chocolate syrup, juice, ices). Anyone have any ideas for me? We have another 5 days to go and I dread mornings and evenings for this reason. TIA.

amother

Wed, Jul 16 2014, 10:27 am

I had the same problem with my son, except that in his case it was Zithromax, which I heard tastes really horrible. He was refusing to take it, even with bribes, but as he had pneumonia there was really no choice in the matter, we had to get it into him some way or another. I called his doctor, who said to bring him to the office. He had me lay him on the examining table, then kinda squeezed his cheeks so that his mouth opened, then quickly poured in some medicine. Then he blew on his face to surprise him into keeping his mouth open, then kept giving him a bit more until he was done. It sounds weird but it worked. For the first two times I tried this, my husband had to hold onto him while I gave the medicine. After that he was much more cooperative, especially if I gave him some fruit leather in between swallows of medicine to take away the nasty aftertaste and stop him from gagging.

Hope this helps!

By the way, this did not traumatize him in any way in case you were wondering. The next time he had to take (a different) medicine, he had no problem with it. It had just been Zithromax that he hated taking, due to the horrible taste.

imasinger

Wed, Jul 16 2014, 10:36 am

Oy, my sympathies.

Usual tricks are numbing the tongue with a piece of ice or popsicle, then earning a treat for taking it, or asking pharmacist for flavor change.

Worst case scenario, I think they make suppositories for some meds.

In the future, you can try begging your pediatrician for another option.

In the end, I taught my kids how to swallow pills by practicing with rice krispies, then cheerios. B"H, they learned early and quickly, and that was the end of the battles.