Hi, Mamas (and mama-to-be, Ann)!
I just spent an excruciating 25 minutes trying to get 1 teaspoon of Amoxicillin down Maya's throat. It was a total nightmare and overall failure. I tried the "big-girl" medicine spoon, the baby dropper, a regular spoon, a regular spoon with applesauce stirred into the meds, and a few drops of the meds in a bottle of milk. I got Maya to take about .5 teaspoon with the dropper, letting her push the plunger by herself. But she got wise pretty quick.
I'm supposed to give this to her twice a day for ten days. I'm totally despairing over here, because she is just utterly refusing it.
I'm actually thinking about loading up on strawberry ice cream and stirring the medicine (also pink) into it. That would mean Maya would eat strawberry ice cream twice a day for ten days. See how desperate I am?
Seriously, help.
Thanks,
Maureen
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hi Maureen! I know what you are going through and I have a barbaric method that works for us. You need someone to help you.
First, sit down on the floor. Put her in your lap with her right hand behind your back. With your left hand, put your arm around her, and grab her left hand to hold it in place.
Second, have someone else administer the meds in the inner cheek (kinda deep) while your right hand is squishing her cheeks together. It takes two trys so while she is crying, she will have to swallow what is in her mouth.
I tried the "mixing in with ice cream" trick with Bella, but the problem is that they are quick to find out what you've done and then it all goes to hell from there! I'm sorry Maya is sick, but she needs her meds so try to do it this way if the ice cream thing doesn't work out.
I had to do this to Harrison at 1 month and 4 months for over 2 weeks at a time while trying to get over his Thrush.
Love always,
Heather
Thank you, Heather, for your idea! I will default to your "barbaric" (hee) method if the situation becomes dire.
For now, I have cobbled together a solution! It's not perfect, but here it is:
1. I briefly explain to Maya that it's time to take her medicine to help her cough. I set the medicine, the syringe, and a bag of Maya's beloved Pirate's Booty (what she calls "chips") on the kitchen table for Maya to see.
2. I fill up the syringe, I say, "First, Mommy will take a turn!" and I pantomime that I'm taking the medicine myself. Maya finds this funny and giggles.
3. Then I say, "Now it is Maya's turn. After you take your meds, Maya, Mommy will give you some chips." I gesture toward the PB.
4. Here's where things break down a little. Despite the Mommy-pantomime and PB bribe, Maya still gets panicky and says "No!" as I move in on her with the syringe. But, I persist and say things like, "I know, I know. Just a littel bit at a time," etc., and I essentially force 1 ml of the stuff into her mouth.
5. When she swallows it, I go crazy. "Yay! Awesome! Hooray! Good job!" and lots of crazy clapping. Maya claps, too, and says, "Yay!"
6. Then I go back to Step 2 and repeat everything over and over, administering 1 ml of the meds at a time, until she's finished it all.
7. At the very end I yell, "All done!" and present Maya with the coveted Pirate's Booty. "As promised, here are your chips," I say.
Believe me, I am NOT proud of bribing my child with food. I was really feeling horrible about it, in fact, for two days or so. One way around this is that I'll swap out Pirate's Booty for star stickers for her nighttime dose. So at least the food bribes are reduced by half, right?!
Anyway, there you have it.
Post a Comment