Getting the Toughest Baby to Take His Medicine

Unfortunately, my little boy, Clark, has had a reoccurring anal abscess (or butt bump) over the past three months. Each occurrence meant another 10 day round of antibiotics. With each round my son has become less of a good sport about taking his medicine. He's also becoming stronger and smarter as time goes on. He literally fights taking his medicine. Getting him to take his medicine is mission-critical turned mission: impossible.

So I've run the gambit of techniques and tricks to get an infant to take his medicine. Admittedly, Clark is a worst case scenario, so many of the techniques that did not work for him may work for other infants. Here's a run-down of the various techniques and tools I have come across and what worked on my little worst case scenario (if you have a code red medicine refuser too, feel free to skip to #6).

Techniques:

1. Put it in Milk:  I've had people recommend that I put Clark's medicine in 2 oz. of milk. The assumption is he won't notice the taste of the medicine in that much liquid. Perhaps, my lil guy is a future chef and has a highly developed palette (for an infant). I added his dose (1 tsp) of medicine to a bottle of milk (4 oz.).  He noticed it on the first sip. You could see the look of disgust on his face. He then refused to drink the rest of the milk. So we lost a dose of medicine and a bottle of breast milk. This works for most babies though.

2. Mix it in Food: If your child has already moved on to solid foods, you could mix his medicine in with his food. The pharmacist recommended mixing the antibiotic with rice cereal. The pink color (of the medicine, not cereal) would make it easy to see if your child had finished all the medicine. Unfortunately, making the rice cereal with (breast) milk, meant that mixing in the medicine, meant a waste of all three when Clark refused to eat it. My son had the same response as he did with medicine mixed in with his milk. He was displeased.

3. Flavored Medicine: The idea is that if the medicine tastes good (options: grape, bubble gum or fruit punch) then children shouldn't have trouble taking it. Sounds like a sound idea, but my son is the rare baby in the world that doesn't like sweet things (e.g., banana, apple, pear, peaches or "fruit" flavored medicine.) So until they come out with a squash or green bean flavored medicine, it won't help my boy.  Many other babies love the sweet fruity flavors.

4. Exotic equipment: You could categorize this under Donnie Deutsch's inventor mantra - "There's got to be a better way!"  First there is the Medicine Pacifier Dispenser. It's a pacifier that measures and holds medicine. The pacifier dispenses the medicine as the child sucks on it. There is also the Medicine Delivery System Bottles.  A syringe measures the medicine and dispenses the medicine into the nipple along with whatever the baby is drinking from the bottle (seemlessly?).  I have not tried either of these products, but I have a strong feeling my son would reject them for the same reason he's rejected the other methods. 

The Methods I Use: 

 5. Take it like a man (a tiny little man):  Warning, if your baby is a fighter, this method can greatly agitates him, which my cause him to spit up the medicine as you're doing your victory dance after getting him to swallow.  I hold my son down on his back (easier with the help of mom or a second person.)  I hold his little mouth open with one hand, which lets you get the medicine in, but also keeps the baby from spitting the meds out.  With my other hand, I use a dropper to dispense the medicine into his mouth.  

With the dropper, I want to get the medicine into the baby's mouth as fast as possible, but it's not the best idea. He's fighting me for as little time as possible, but with so much medicine in his mouth, there is a good chance he will find a way to spit some out, overflow or choke on it.  If I give my son the medicine slowly (drop after drop), it takes longer so he's in an agitated state for a longer period of time, which I feel greatly contributes to him not being able to keep the medicine down for long. 

6.  Here's what works best at my house:  When #5 isn't working (either can't get the medicine in or cannot keep it down), you need drastic measures.  This method requires a bit more time and patience.  So, relax and don't try to rush.  There is some baby psychology here.  You want to associate taking medicine with a positive experience, not something he hates.  

I try to distract Clark from the fact he's taking medicine. (remember, Distraction is the king of parental techniques). I  try to sing or use toys that he likes to soothe him. I then give him small mini-doses of his medicine with breaks in between each. The smaller the dose, the easier and faster it is to give.  A dose is normally a tsp, which is 5 mL.  I break it up into 5 - 1mL doses.  I allow about a one minute break between doses to allow the baby to calm down and relax as not to get over-anxious or over-agitated.  

With this method I try to avoid forcing his mouth open if I can. I pretend to taste some of the medicine to convey that it doesn't taste that bad.  A few times I've been lucky and the baby just opened his mouth and took the medicine with the more relaxed approach. If he still won't open his mouth, then I'll have to force it open, but the mini-dose means that I don't have to hold it open for long.  This method has been the most successful at getting all the medicine down and staying down inside my lil worst case medicine scenario. 

The main take away is to use a gentle relaxed approach with mini-doses and  breaks in between.  Good luck!

     - Clark's Dad