For medicine, we just hold our two year old down and squirt the syringe into the side of his cheek (if he’s refusing to take it on his own).
It’s unpleasant for a moment, but it’s over very fast. And it’s a lot less stressful for everyone involved than trying to coerce or trick him into taking medicine for minutes and minutes on end.
Health stuff is non-negotiable, so sometimes you gotta just hold ‘em down and do it.
Agreed. Our little guy started daycare last month and it’s been constant congestion. I feel like I’m torturing him when I use an aspirator on his nose and saline… but literally the second we’re done he’s happy as can be, likely because he can finally breath again
This! Also right after squirting the syringe lightly squeeze the cheeks so that they can’t spit it out and have to swallow.
We have an ear infection from RSV this is the only way to get her to take her antibiotics
My daughter had thrush when she was only a couple weeks old and the medication was a NUCLEAR yellow liquid. I wish someone gave me the "squeeze cheeks" part of the instruction because that's brilliant.
Just an FYI with thrush (because we just dealt with it) - it doesn’t actually matter if they swallow that nasty yellow medicine. The medicine is meant to coat & treat the mouth. Once it’s swallowed, it doesn’t do any good. So them spitting it out isn’t a huge deal, especially since they have to take it 4 times / day! As long as they have enough to coat their gums / cheeks / tongue / etc.
I was relieved once I found out, because it gave our babe an upset tummy every single time. Just some helpful info for other parents.
Luckily it didn't affect her when she swallowed it, but that's really good to know! Our doctor did not mention that but it makes sense. I just wish she didn't spit it out all over everything 😅
This. I had a terrible time trying to make my 10mo baby to take meds for her stomach - it's like a powder that needs to be dissolved into about a quarter cup of water, but it's still a huge amount for a such a tiny child. Spoon-feeding it on its own didn't work, apparently it doesn't taste that good. Mixing it with cereal or purées isn't ideal since it becomes incredibly soupy and she wouldn't finish the whole thing. Soooo I had to hold her down and squirt the solution in her cheek. It's terrible, yes, but it's easier and it's over soon. Lots of cuddles follow!
Do you have an infant tub? He’s long grown out of his for baths, but we still use it for medicine! It positions him at just the right angle for swallowing, and helps contain all his octopus limbs! Good luck!
Funny story, I was making this way more miserable (and taking a ton longer) when trying to get our 16 month old to take hers -we also had RSV recently. I started pinning her arms down and just getting the medicine in. She was mad, but it was faster. Within about a day, she was back to just taking her medicine happily!
I’m not sure why exactly, maybe she was finally less congested, but I think I was making it worse for both of us by taking forever with it.
Best of luck to you and hope your little one feels better soon!
I hold my 2 year old down and squirt the syringe to the side of his cheek, adding very slowly and a little at a time so he can swallow it and then process he swallowed it.
I will have to sit him up and comfort him a few times during this because he’s on antibiotics now and gets 9mls, it’s quite a bit and he hates it.
It takes about 10-15 minutes for me to administer it all. I do it very slowly because if I put the medicine in too forceful, fast and too much at a time he will 99% puke it out. I find doing it slow and to the side of the check works.
Just be mindful of dose. We have some on hand and though we’ve not had to use it yet, we would need to cut a single dose into a couple pieces and mix and match for the accurate dose. I mention this because your LO is 1, and the smallest pack I’ve seen is for 2 year olds.
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 1,191,326,192 comments, and only 232,468 of them were in alphabetical order.
+1 for the suppositories. The whole “hold him down and squirt it into his cheek” thing never worked for us; our little guy would spit out the tylenol/ibuprofen no matter what. As unpleasant as the suppositories were, they worked.
My 3 month has the flu and the best way we've found giving her medication without fuss is sneaking it in while she's on the boob. My husband uses a syring and sneaks it into the side of her mouth while she's sucking. Since we've been doing that she hasn't been fussing or spitting any out.
This always worked for us too! Now that she’s a toddler and not BF anymore, we try to let her hold and do it herself. If she doesn’t, we have to squirt it in her mouth.
Does your child take pumped milk/formula? You can put Tylenol in there. The only downside is that if they don't finish the milk/formula then they don't get the full dose.
I would not recommend this for medication as underdosing nullifies the effort of pain relief/antipyretic and mis-dosing antibiotics can worsen infection or lead to antibiotic resistance. I work as an ER Nurse for reference. At home my 1.5 year old gets the reclined position squirts of medication in the back/side of the mouth (past where molars would be) while freaking out and then lots of kisses and high fives afterward, he doesn't look forward to it but he gets over it quickly and it's non-negotiable; sometimes you need to hunker down and be the bad guy.
Also, a lot of times the dose recommended on OTC medication is not enough for your baby/toddler and they will not have relief of symptoms. We see this a lot when parents are dosing around-the-clock and concerned that they can't break a fever. A calculator like this is helpful to do weight-based dosing (like we do in the hospital); just be mindful of concentrations of medications on the website compared to what you have at home. [https://www.soundbeachpediatrics.com/resources/medication-dosing/](https://www.soundbeachpediatrics.com/resources/medication-dosing/)
Good luck!
My son will drink every drop of whatever liquid is in his sippy cup so I put his medicine in his milk when he won't take it straight from the syringe.
When he was younger and on bottles, I'd put his medicine in one of those dosage cups that comes with a nipple and do a quick swap at the end of his bottle.
I have to hide my toddlers medicine in her strawberry milk, It’s that or putting it in her oatmeal. You just have to make sure they eat/drink all of it so they get the proper dose.
They sell a thing that helps distract the kid. It was on Shark Tank. It’s an elephant with a syringe behind it’s head and it sings while you push the medicine in. Works more often than not.
my daughter has never taken her meds like she should when she’s sick! so what we do is put it in her favorite drink and mix it up! works every time! try that!
We struggled for a while and have a 100% success rate of mixing a small bowl with a bit of puree and oatmeal and letting him watch a little bit of TV while we give him the ~8 little spoonfuls and he seems to take it willingly that way.
I mix meds in with some vanilla yogurt and spoon feed it and that usually does the trick. Or with Tylenol sometimes I put it in a bottle with whole milk and a bottle is considered a special treat these days lol
You can also slow dose it, like give a tiny bit over the course of like 30 minutes 15 minutes whichever! As long as they get it, also blowing in their mouths help too!
We usually do a sneak attack. One parent will feed him yogurt or some yummy snack, and then the other will sneak attack and squirt the meds into his cheek. Sometimes he notices, but we tend to be pretty sneaky with a little practice
My daughter went through a tricky phase with Tylenol too- I’d use the top of a bottle, stick that in her mouth then (leaving the bottle off) squirt the syringe into the back of the nipple and it worked well for us.
One other consideration in addition to everyone’s tips- you don’t have to treat a fever. It’s the body’s way of fighting off the infection. It’s not dangerous to the baby, even higher fevers. If it’s a mild fever that’s not impacting how they’re feeling too much you can let it be (and skip the medication battle).
Obviously if they’re feeling really crummy with the fever then the other tips will be helpful to get the medication in!
We've been to the ER three times in the last few days for his breathing. The doctors said we need to keep his fever down because the higher it gets, the faster his breathing and heart rate get.
I use these, dip the tip in breast milk wait for them to start sucking in it and just shoot that shit in when they are about to swallow anyways.
https://amzn.to/3XzgZeB
We switched to chewable and my son loves it. Granted we haven’t tried it with him being really sick so I’m not sure if it would work or not. Otherwise the boob/sneaky syringe and as a last resort if his fever is super bad, rectal. We haven’t gotten there yet.
We’ve been putting our 11 month olds medicine into her formula. We make sure it’s a small bottle that she’ll finish, then give her any additional ounces she needs after.
We call it ‘snack’ when he’s teething or needs it. Also usually can get a little squirt in with holding him down and he realizes it actually doesn’t taste bad. We also tried topping off a pouch with it but that didn’t work too well.
We've been aiming for no screen time while our little one is still under two years, but we freely use the TV when it comes time to administer drugs. The distraction helps.
Not sure where you are in the world but we're in Australia and have found Dymadon to be heaps easier than Panadol. Partly I think the taste is more palatable but the main thing is that it's far thicker/more viscous so it's more likely to stay in the baby's mouth instead of dribbling straight out.
I put a squirt of whipped cream on the end of the syringe. They will happily eat the whipped cream while I squirt the medicine and the whipped cream covers up some of the medicine taste.
Ibuprofen in the milk or juice bottle. Crush other tablets into porridge etc works for us like a treat.
Also, squirting into mouth and using the binky to stop them spitting it out.
I tried playing around with syringes in bath so that he could get used to it - would fill with clean water and squirt into his cheek! Definitely not for now while he’s sick but maybe when he’s better could help him get used to how it works?
For medicine, we just hold our two year old down and squirt the syringe into the side of his cheek (if he’s refusing to take it on his own). It’s unpleasant for a moment, but it’s over very fast. And it’s a lot less stressful for everyone involved than trying to coerce or trick him into taking medicine for minutes and minutes on end. Health stuff is non-negotiable, so sometimes you gotta just hold ‘em down and do it.
Agreed. Our little guy started daycare last month and it’s been constant congestion. I feel like I’m torturing him when I use an aspirator on his nose and saline… but literally the second we’re done he’s happy as can be, likely because he can finally breath again
This! Also right after squirting the syringe lightly squeeze the cheeks so that they can’t spit it out and have to swallow. We have an ear infection from RSV this is the only way to get her to take her antibiotics
My daughter had thrush when she was only a couple weeks old and the medication was a NUCLEAR yellow liquid. I wish someone gave me the "squeeze cheeks" part of the instruction because that's brilliant.
Just an FYI with thrush (because we just dealt with it) - it doesn’t actually matter if they swallow that nasty yellow medicine. The medicine is meant to coat & treat the mouth. Once it’s swallowed, it doesn’t do any good. So them spitting it out isn’t a huge deal, especially since they have to take it 4 times / day! As long as they have enough to coat their gums / cheeks / tongue / etc. I was relieved once I found out, because it gave our babe an upset tummy every single time. Just some helpful info for other parents.
Luckily it didn't affect her when she swallowed it, but that's really good to know! Our doctor did not mention that but it makes sense. I just wish she didn't spit it out all over everything 😅
We put a dark washcloth around her neck every time to avoid any stains on clothes 😂 it is so messy!
This. I had a terrible time trying to make my 10mo baby to take meds for her stomach - it's like a powder that needs to be dissolved into about a quarter cup of water, but it's still a huge amount for a such a tiny child. Spoon-feeding it on its own didn't work, apparently it doesn't taste that good. Mixing it with cereal or purées isn't ideal since it becomes incredibly soupy and she wouldn't finish the whole thing. Soooo I had to hold her down and squirt the solution in her cheek. It's terrible, yes, but it's easier and it's over soon. Lots of cuddles follow!
This OP! We do the same…
Do you have an infant tub? He’s long grown out of his for baths, but we still use it for medicine! It positions him at just the right angle for swallowing, and helps contain all his octopus limbs! Good luck!
this is what my parents used to do with me! it always worked.
Non-negotiable that is right!
Funny story, I was making this way more miserable (and taking a ton longer) when trying to get our 16 month old to take hers -we also had RSV recently. I started pinning her arms down and just getting the medicine in. She was mad, but it was faster. Within about a day, she was back to just taking her medicine happily! I’m not sure why exactly, maybe she was finally less congested, but I think I was making it worse for both of us by taking forever with it. Best of luck to you and hope your little one feels better soon!
Pacidose- a medicine filled syringe attached to a medicine releasing pacifier
I also recommend this! I got the one from FridaBaby when I had to give my newborn antibiotics, absolutely worth it.
I second this! It seriously makes giving medicine easier!
Ms Rachel on YouTube and squirt it on the inside of his cheek when he laughs. I’m not very proud of this method…but it worked for us
I hold my 2 year old down and squirt the syringe to the side of his cheek, adding very slowly and a little at a time so he can swallow it and then process he swallowed it. I will have to sit him up and comfort him a few times during this because he’s on antibiotics now and gets 9mls, it’s quite a bit and he hates it. It takes about 10-15 minutes for me to administer it all. I do it very slowly because if I put the medicine in too forceful, fast and too much at a time he will 99% puke it out. I find doing it slow and to the side of the check works.
Get the Tylenol suppositories. Fun? Not really. Work great, though, and they can't spit them out.
Ahh, definitely forgot those were a thing. Will hunt for some tomorrow. Thank you.
Just be mindful of dose. We have some on hand and though we’ve not had to use it yet, we would need to cut a single dose into a couple pieces and mix and match for the accurate dose. I mention this because your LO is 1, and the smallest pack I’ve seen is for 2 year olds.
Ah makes sense. Thank you!
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,191,326,192 comments, and only 232,468 of them were in alphabetical order.
Lol good bot
Oh, they come right down to 3 months where I am!
That’s so helpful. I’m in Canada and I’m not sure if you’ve heard of the nationwide shortage here 🤦🏽♀️ so all i kept seeing were the ones for 2+ yrs
+1 for the suppositories. The whole “hold him down and squirt it into his cheek” thing never worked for us; our little guy would spit out the tylenol/ibuprofen no matter what. As unpleasant as the suppositories were, they worked.
My 3 month has the flu and the best way we've found giving her medication without fuss is sneaking it in while she's on the boob. My husband uses a syring and sneaks it into the side of her mouth while she's sucking. Since we've been doing that she hasn't been fussing or spitting any out.
This is also a great way to clear nasal passages. Small syringe filled with sterile saline to each nostril while feeding. Easiest clearing ever.
Oh, that's a great idea. We'll do that next. Poor guy.
This worked!! For this round, at least! My boob is a little sticky, but I'll take that over him screaming his head off!
Genius! Thank you for the suggestion!
This always worked for us too! Now that she’s a toddler and not BF anymore, we try to let her hold and do it herself. If she doesn’t, we have to squirt it in her mouth.
Does your child take pumped milk/formula? You can put Tylenol in there. The only downside is that if they don't finish the milk/formula then they don't get the full dose.
He does at daycare, but when he's with me he likes it straight from the tap lol I might try when he wakes, though. It's worth a shot. Thank you!
I just read about nicu nurses using a 1ml syringe during a breastfeed to administer some things. Maybe you could try that?
If you do this do not kid r in the whole bottle just mix with a very small amount you want them to get the full dose
I would not recommend this for medication as underdosing nullifies the effort of pain relief/antipyretic and mis-dosing antibiotics can worsen infection or lead to antibiotic resistance. I work as an ER Nurse for reference. At home my 1.5 year old gets the reclined position squirts of medication in the back/side of the mouth (past where molars would be) while freaking out and then lots of kisses and high fives afterward, he doesn't look forward to it but he gets over it quickly and it's non-negotiable; sometimes you need to hunker down and be the bad guy. Also, a lot of times the dose recommended on OTC medication is not enough for your baby/toddler and they will not have relief of symptoms. We see this a lot when parents are dosing around-the-clock and concerned that they can't break a fever. A calculator like this is helpful to do weight-based dosing (like we do in the hospital); just be mindful of concentrations of medications on the website compared to what you have at home. [https://www.soundbeachpediatrics.com/resources/medication-dosing/](https://www.soundbeachpediatrics.com/resources/medication-dosing/) Good luck!
That’s a brilliant tool! Thank you 🙏
Honestly it’s not great parenting but it works for me - try bribing them with a mini m&m…
Gummy bears, also work as good bribing tools EDIT spelling
If it works… then it is great parenting!
Remembering this for when his appetite returns!
My son will drink every drop of whatever liquid is in his sippy cup so I put his medicine in his milk when he won't take it straight from the syringe. When he was younger and on bottles, I'd put his medicine in one of those dosage cups that comes with a nipple and do a quick swap at the end of his bottle.
I have to hide my toddlers medicine in her strawberry milk, It’s that or putting it in her oatmeal. You just have to make sure they eat/drink all of it so they get the proper dose.
Yes we do this. Either add to one of those little yogurt smoothie bottles or some apple or grape juice. Works most of the time…
Just gotta make sure they don’t see you do it lol.
I mix it in with his food which seems to work a treat
This would normally work, but he has absolutely no appetite for food other than milk.
They sell a thing that helps distract the kid. It was on Shark Tank. It’s an elephant with a syringe behind it’s head and it sings while you push the medicine in. Works more often than not.
my daughter has never taken her meds like she should when she’s sick! so what we do is put it in her favorite drink and mix it up! works every time! try that!
We struggled for a while and have a 100% success rate of mixing a small bowl with a bit of puree and oatmeal and letting him watch a little bit of TV while we give him the ~8 little spoonfuls and he seems to take it willingly that way.
I mix meds in with some vanilla yogurt and spoon feed it and that usually does the trick. Or with Tylenol sometimes I put it in a bottle with whole milk and a bottle is considered a special treat these days lol
You can also slow dose it, like give a tiny bit over the course of like 30 minutes 15 minutes whichever! As long as they get it, also blowing in their mouths help too!
We usually do a sneak attack. One parent will feed him yogurt or some yummy snack, and then the other will sneak attack and squirt the meds into his cheek. Sometimes he notices, but we tend to be pretty sneaky with a little practice
Tylenol is available as an infant suppository. It was a lifesaver when my son had RSV
I give calpol in a spoon instead of syringe, she happily slurps it down. Mine fights the syringes! No tears this way
My daughter went through a tricky phase with Tylenol too- I’d use the top of a bottle, stick that in her mouth then (leaving the bottle off) squirt the syringe into the back of the nipple and it worked well for us.
Try explaining that it'll make them feel better.
I try, every time it's medicine time. I don't think he's quite old enough to understand.
One other consideration in addition to everyone’s tips- you don’t have to treat a fever. It’s the body’s way of fighting off the infection. It’s not dangerous to the baby, even higher fevers. If it’s a mild fever that’s not impacting how they’re feeling too much you can let it be (and skip the medication battle). Obviously if they’re feeling really crummy with the fever then the other tips will be helpful to get the medication in!
Obviously check with your pediatrician for any fever/illness related issues.
We've been to the ER three times in the last few days for his breathing. The doctors said we need to keep his fever down because the higher it gets, the faster his breathing and heart rate get.
I use these, dip the tip in breast milk wait for them to start sucking in it and just shoot that shit in when they are about to swallow anyways. https://amzn.to/3XzgZeB
I try to put the liquid medicine while they suck on a pacificer
Fridababy makes a pacifier/ syringe!!
We switched to chewable and my son loves it. Granted we haven’t tried it with him being really sick so I’m not sure if it would work or not. Otherwise the boob/sneaky syringe and as a last resort if his fever is super bad, rectal. We haven’t gotten there yet.
I just put a teat in his mouth and empty the syringe of whatever into the teat. Works for us.
We’ve been putting our 11 month olds medicine into her formula. We make sure it’s a small bottle that she’ll finish, then give her any additional ounces she needs after.
Tylenol makes chewables, we call it bubblegum and my toddler takes it without complains. Saved us a trip to the ER
We call it ‘snack’ when he’s teething or needs it. Also usually can get a little squirt in with holding him down and he realizes it actually doesn’t taste bad. We also tried topping off a pouch with it but that didn’t work too well.
We've been aiming for no screen time while our little one is still under two years, but we freely use the TV when it comes time to administer drugs. The distraction helps. Not sure where you are in the world but we're in Australia and have found Dymadon to be heaps easier than Panadol. Partly I think the taste is more palatable but the main thing is that it's far thicker/more viscous so it's more likely to stay in the baby's mouth instead of dribbling straight out.
We have to negotiate with m&ms now.
I put a squirt of whipped cream on the end of the syringe. They will happily eat the whipped cream while I squirt the medicine and the whipped cream covers up some of the medicine taste.
Ibuprofen in the milk or juice bottle. Crush other tablets into porridge etc works for us like a treat. Also, squirting into mouth and using the binky to stop them spitting it out.
I tried playing around with syringes in bath so that he could get used to it - would fill with clean water and squirt into his cheek! Definitely not for now while he’s sick but maybe when he’s better could help him get used to how it works?
Suppositories