How to Give Medicine to a 1-Year-Old

As I mentioned in my previous post, Allie has an ear infection. Getting her to take her antibiotic has been difficult to say the least. The amoxicillin was 6mL twice a day in a syringe. I don't know if you know this, but 6mL is a lot to give a baby who won't take medicine.

 Dose 1

Take one: I let her try a little bit of it thinking she would like the bubblegum flavor and take it willingly. Wrong. She spit it out.

Take two: She was on to me by this point and clenched her jaw shut. When she opened her mouth to scream I tried to squirt some in the back of her mouth. She sputtered on it and spit over half of it out. Pink, sticky medicine was now running down her face and neck.

Take three: Time to get dad involved. Nick held her while I squirted the rest in her mouth (we were in the parking lot of Walmart by the way and didn't have many other options) She spit a good portion of it out again and then clawed my face. I have a 2 inch scratch across my cheek now.

Dose 2 (the next morning)

Take one: I tried to let her take it willingly again wondering if she would change her mind about the stuff. Nope.

Take two: I put a small amount of medicine on a spoon. I asked her if she wanted a bite and she opened her mouth, curious. One taste and she spit it out.

Take three: As she was drinking her bottle, I took the syringe and squirted some in the side of her mouth thinking she wouldn't notice. She immediately took the bottle out of her mouth and looked at it wondering where the yucky stuff was coming from. She reluctantly put it back in her mouth. I tried the technique once again. This time she took the bottle out of her mouth and threw it while spitting the medicine and the milk out. She wouldn't take her bottle again for the rest of the morning.

Take four: We tried the spoon one more time. I filled it up, forced her mouth open (by this point she was screaming and jaw clenching) and shoved the spoon in, closing her lips as best as I could so she would have to swallow it. 

After all the drama, the poor girl was allergic to the amoxicillin and we had to go get a new antibiotic. The new one fortunately is only 3 mL once a day.

Dose 1

Take one: Once again, I gave her the option to take it willingly. I thought maybe the new medicine would taste better. Wrong again. 

Take two: I tried mixing the medicine with chocolate pudding. As she was eating dinner, I gave her a bite of the pudding thinking she would love it. She spit it out and wouldn't open her mouth for another bite. I decided trying to force the pudding down would be harder since she would have to get down about 8 bites.

Take three: Dad held her on his lap while I squirted the medicine as far into her mouth as I could. She got about half of it down and spit the rest out. I tried to catch the stuff she spit out in my fingers and put it back into her mouth. Not so much successful.

Take four: With about 1 mL left in the syringe, Nick held her, I forced her mouth open, squirted the medicine in, and then pinched her lips together so she was forced to swallow it. This was our most successful attempt so far. She wasn't able to spit it out and swallowed the whole dose. I guess that is what I will try...for the next 10 days...ugh.

Now before you all go off accusing me of child abuse remember that it is medicine she needs and if she doesn't get it, she won't get better! If you have a better way? I would LOVE to hear it.

(Mixing it with juice/milk has been suggested...I would try it but she drinks her bottle so slowly over the course of the day that I'm worried she wouldn't get it down.)