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AIBU?

To Wonder Why They Cant Make Kids Medicine a tiny bit nicer?

46 replies

MadameOvary · 17/02/2013 19:55

DD has strep throat. AFTER being in hospital for viral-induced wheeze and trying to get her to take Prednisolone (which made her gag and vomit) I am now having to inflict penicillin on her. I have phone the hospital for advice and their attitude is "She has to have it" quite rightly, I get that, but they seems to think the "by any means necessary" route works.

I know for a fact that physically pinning DD down and forcing her to take it will not work as she will just vomit it back up, For whatever reason. Which is what has just happened, and I'll have some bruises to remind me.

The only two doses out of 7 attemots have been when she is half asleep.I have quickly followed with distractipn and ibuprofen and averted any dramas.

The rest of the time its pointless. She is determined and very strong and right now I am so fucked off with the whole thing I have had to go away while I stop shaking.

I have the patience. I would talk to DD all night if it would help. I would take any amount of bruises if she actually swallowed the fucking stuff and kept it down. She will not.

I have tried hiding it in food and drink, tried bribes, tried fucking role-play. Ice cream worked once but there was lots going and she hasnt much of an appetite anyway.

I am doubly pissed off because she actually ate something today and now she has thrown it back up again.

She will take Nurofen. She takes Cetirizine. She even takes Abidec!!! And she would probably take this stuff as well if it wasn't dayglo fucking orange with an equally rank smell and taste!!!

Even making it clear/colourless would help. But no, let's signpost the horrible medicine by making it glow in the fucking dark !!!

Sorry for rant, I can't be mad at her, she is four, so I am venting on here.
I understand this is AIBU, so if you're going to give me a pasting, could you please add some tips on how you managed to give reluctant DC medicine???

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MadameOvary · 17/02/2013 19:56

Sorry for typos and shit grammar Blush

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landrover · 17/02/2013 19:59

I feel for you, i hope you dont get a pasting! Cant really help you though except maybe bribery would help. Big chocolate bar if you take it?

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RaspberrysAndIcecream · 17/02/2013 20:01

YANBU
And hugs to u and ur dd.

I'm a nanny, one child who was on verge of being hospitalised only got medicine down him by mouthful of ice cream then medicine then ice cream. Was recommended by the nurse at the gp's. once he started feeling better, he was better at taking it, but when swallowing hurt so much he dribbled instead of swallowing, ice cream numbed his mouth and tasted nice iyswim?
Hope ur dd is better soon.

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PoppyWearer · 17/02/2013 20:03

YANBU.

I sympathise completely, having had a week of trying to pin down 18mo DC2 and squirt antibiotics and eye drops into him. Mostly failing.

And then there's my 4yo DC1, the one who has eczema so bad her hands bleed, but will she let me put cream on her? Will she heck...even if I pin her down and put it on her, she goes into the bathroom, gets a washcloth and towel and washes it all off! (I know it's not oral medicine, but there has to be an easier way to do this, surely?)

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minibmw2010 · 17/02/2013 20:10

Huge sympathies here, Penicillin makes my DS sick too, no matter how we try it do he always has to have slightly less effective stuff which he can stomach but it means his illness goes on longer than it needs to Sad

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DoctorAnge · 17/02/2013 20:10

As the mother of a child who has had to take numerous courses of AB and AV for various serious infections. I can say I completely and utterly agree with you.

Her IV medicine in hospital was easier that oral and I say that sincerely hand on heart. Our consultant said it is made very cheaply and no effort is made for it to taste "good " at all.

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PrincessOfChina · 17/02/2013 20:13

Our GP once said that he had no idea why the children's hospital insisted on sending people home with the day-glo orange stuff. He replaces it with some nice banana medicine.

With the eye drops, our nursery taught us to put DD on her side then put the drop on the edge of her nose and roll her on to her back. The drop then goes into the eye easily and with minimal fighting.

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AngryGnome · 17/02/2013 20:16

I completely agree. Ds is only 2 and it is more or less physically impossible for us to get any kind of medicine in to him. He is meant to be having antibiotics twice a day at the moment, and it is more or less impossible to get it into him. We hVe tried every tactic under the sun, but he is just getting worse at taking them. I know he isn't getting the full course, and so I worry that it will end up only half fighting the infection, and making it worse.

There must be a better way of getting medicine into children!

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LadyKatherine · 17/02/2013 20:16

The last time DS had to have the rank orange anti biotics, he was 4 and would be sobbing at having to take it. I got round it by bribing him with a Mini Egg (was around easter time) for every spoon of medicine he took. So he'd have anti biotic meds - mini egg, then ibuprofen/paracetamol meds - mini egg. That was the only way he would let me give it to him.

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PomBearWithAnOFRS · 17/02/2013 20:18

Isn't an anti-overdose precaution? if it tastes nasty, a small child isn't going to guzzle the whole bottle if they get their hands on it. That said, calpol is sweet so I could be on completely the wrong track Confused
Ahh Poppy I wonder if your DD is like me - I've eczema all my life on and off, and I always found that cream hurts. It stings and burns like buggery, and none of it ever actually seemed to work anyway. I can remember kicking and screaming and being held down by my parents while they plastered it on, and sobbing, and mam crying, and they just did as the doctor said :( and I suffered for it.
Ordinary antiseptic like savlon or similar, to stop it getting infected, or any moisturising cream at all that she will tolerate is just as good as the steroid and cortisone creams, different ones affect different people in different ways, but please, listen to her if she says it hurts going on...

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recall · 17/02/2013 20:28

Try this....get the medicine and mix it with icing sugar. Squidge it on top of a fairy cake with a sweet on top. This usually works cos my kids eat the icing first

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sapphirestar · 17/02/2013 20:30

YANBU. My dd had anti-biotics for an insect bite that got infected last year. She used to gag at medicine time, I thought 'she must be exaggerating, it can't be that bad' until I tasted it and it was absolutely vile! My solution was to have a haribo sweet ready and give her that to take the taste away

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Struffle · 17/02/2013 20:31

Is it amoxycillin? If so, you can get it in at least 2 different flavours. I remember a day glow orange one (which was what made me think of it) but also a yellow one which I think was lemon flavoured. I remember my children liked the yellow one so much they were wanting to have it even when it wasn't prescribed for them.

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Carrie37 · 17/02/2013 20:49

It sounds like you have Phenoxymethylpenicillin it does taste faitly bad. Ask them to change it to Amoxicillin when you take prescription to chemist ask for the Bannana flavoured version. It is important you dont put your DC off meds for life.

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elliejjtiny · 17/02/2013 21:08

my boys are like that, nightmare. i find the best way of doing it is with a syringe, squirted fast into the side of their mouths. I think going to the gp to request an alternative flavour is a good idea too.

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chocolatespiders · 17/02/2013 21:16

DD has had this for her Asthma before and you are right it is absolutely awful taste. I add juice to it and get her to take it with a straw to the back if her mouth to hopefully miss her taste buds and hold her nose. Didnt know you could ask for an alternative.
Hope you dd feels better soon Smile

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Standingonlego · 17/02/2013 21:42

I remember this stuff, expert AB taker ds2 hated it. We did positive visualisation - "angry birds" medicine to zap nasty throat pigs, followed by a strong Ribena chaser. Administered in nurofen syringe which he pushed plunger so was in control. I tried it, it is really bitter and disgusting, stains terribly and not nice when spat in your face. Good luck OP !!!! Seek alternative... But it did address the infection quick!

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NationalLottie · 17/02/2013 21:52

Yes we still have a stained wall from a particularly bad week on ABs 3 yrs ago when it was spat out at some considerable force by DS
Ask for alternative. We got one because we got through a bottle (on the furnishings etc) before the course was finished

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MadameOvary · 17/02/2013 21:52

recall I have considered the icing sugar/cake idea. DD likes lemon drizzle so if i could get lemon flavoured meds it might just work. Smile
Its the bloody prednisolone that started it. DD had chocolate buttons, digestive buttons, her favourite juice, but nothing took the taste away so the whole lot came back up! That was dayglo pink FFS.
So Angry at hearing how cheaply its made and no effort is made to improve the taste.
Thank you for your support. Wish there was a Waitrose-type equivalent to this crap where you can specify a more pleasant and palatable option for your DC?.

That would be nice Grin

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GregBishopsBottomBitch · 17/02/2013 21:56

Is it that amoxicillin, coz that stuff is fecking vile, remember that as a kid, my sister had to have that and she hated it, my DD dont like it either.

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Pictureperfect · 17/02/2013 22:03

I know she's only 4 but as she hates it so much would she be willing to have tablets instead? (Ironicaly just after typing that line my mum came in and reminded me that I've been avoiding taking horrible tasting medication-and I'm an adult!). There's a great website aimed at parents of children with cancer called Squirrel Tales, there lots of parents share how they got their kids taking horrible liquids or teaching them to have tablets at a very young age. If I can't take them for some reason (even some tablets taste awful) then I have a big spoon of jelly, poke the tablet into the middle and swallow it down, you don't even feel the tablet.
I hope things become easier soon

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Wrigglebum · 17/02/2013 22:04

It's because people are so utterly paranoid about sugar so they're all sugar free now. I got the sugar free calpol at first until I tasted it, then quickly moved on to the regular one with sugar. Why not give people a choice? If you have to use chocolate/icing sugar/ice cream to get it down them surely it defeats the point!

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Pictureperfect · 17/02/2013 22:04
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Startail · 17/02/2013 22:16

My GP would find me something else as standard penicillin was banana flavoured and bananas are the one thing on the planet I truly cannot eat.

Not that any of his alternatives were nice and I was delighted when I learnt to swallow pills.

I think the basic problem is that penicillin is secreted by a fungi and it tastes of mould. If you accidentally suck an adult tablet it is vile.

The medicine makers try to cover it up with strong flavours and they don't seem to succeed!

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chocolatespiders · 17/02/2013 22:18

I always get strange looks when asking for Calpol- not the sugar free one please Smile

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