When you have a little one under the weather, as a parent your heart hurts for them. All you want is for them to feel better. But when getting better means that medicine is involved, sometimes it can cause a completely unwanted roadblock in the getting better process.
We’ve been there, those moments when you have a wiggly baby or toddler on your lap, struggling because they don’t like the taste of their medicine. It’s the worst. Especially since they don’t understand that you’re just trying to help them.
7 Tricks to Get Your Little One to Take Their Medicine
Picture this: you arrive home from your local pharmacy, your sick baby in your arms and all you want to do is measure out their first dose of meds and nurse them back to help. You set your little one down and get them cozy while you measure out the liquid and they drink it down just like it was candy.
Sounds like a dream, right?
It doesn’t have to be! Today, we are sharing some of our absolute favorite tricks to get your little one to take their medicine - no stress involved!
1. Request flavored medicine at your local pharmacy. Most places have this as an option and even give you a few flavors to choose from. Pick which one you know your child will like the most and act like it’s a delicious treat.
2. Pretend play. Get out their favorite toys and create a doctor’s office scene in your home. This lets them have some control and feel like they’re in charge. Let them pretend to give their favorite doll or stuffed animal the medicine to make them feel better and then let them serve it to themselves.
3. Try to bypass their tongue. The easiest way to do this is to sit them in their high chair, use a syringe to feed them their medicine and slowly coat the back of their mouth. If you slowly stroke their chin while doing this, they will tilt their head up enough to actually make it work!
4. Give them a reward. If you have a little one that is very driven by rewards, use this as an opportunity to give them a little something extra once all their medicine doses have been taken for the day.
5. Add it to food. In various cases you can mix the liquid or crushed up pill medicine in with soft foods like apple sauce or maple syrup to get them to take it down quickly and easily.
6. Figure out a schedule that works for your child. Every child is different. For instance, some might like to take one dose a day of 20 mil, while some would rather it be split into 5 small doses so they can take breaks in between.
7. Bear hug! If all else fails (and sometimes, it does) and your child needs to be restrained in order to get the medicine in their mouth, use the bear hug method. This means, act like you’re giving them a big bear hug, versus restraining them so they feel safe, supported, and more at ease instead of upset.
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Have a sick child at home? We hope that our tips help you and your family navigate giving them their medicine and make the whole process a little bit easier on both you and your child.
The Nozebot is a battery-powered suction device designed to clear nasal congestion in babies and children.
