Bad tasting oral antibiotics....

[triples15]

Hey everyone!

I'm the CFer in our family so I'll hope you'll forgive me that this isn't directly CF related. I just figured this is an excellent population to ask this question!

Our 23 month old daughter has a nasty sinus infection and was prescribed Augmentin. We had it flavored at the pharmacy, and it doesn't taste terrible to me, but she absolutely refuses to take it. We've tried everything from positive reinforcement, to bribery and trickery, to brute force. No matter what, she is always able to spit almost all of it out (or makes herself throw it up). So I have NO IDEA how I'm going to get these antibiotics in her. UGH. She needs them terribly. She has been coughing absolutely all night the last couple nights, and sometimes throws up with the cough. We haven't slept much at all in the last 48 hours, unless I'm holding her more upright in the rocking chair. Fun times. The doc said the amount of stuff draining down the back of her throat is awful.

Anyway, and tips/tricks/advice would be MUCH appreciated!

Thanks!

Autumn 32 w/CF

 

[Aboveallislove]

When DS had to take flagyl which is truly adult-throw-up-worthy, DH and I held him done and did it .1 ml (yes .1 ml) at a time with water in between. Blow on her face after it is in and it triggers a swallow reflux. Maybe have pharmacy re-do with a different flavor (very different like strrawberry to grape) OR have doctor call in a new antibiotic which works the same but doesn't have the taste. hang in there.

 

[Ratatosk]

DS had issues with liquid cipro and we just powered thru. I did find that he HATED flavored pain reliever. Not sure if the grape flavor was harsh on his throat or what, but we switched to tablets as soon as possible. Maybe she dislikes what it was flavored with.... When DS was a baby we would sometimes put his vitamins mixed with a little bit of orange juice in a nipple from a bottle and he'd suck that down; however, I suspect your child it probably taking more than a ml of medicine, so doing that with 5-10 would be a bit tedious.

 

[Rebjane]

Hi Autumn,

For bad tasting oral antibiotics I use an oral syringe and hold the child, and try to squirt the medicine past their taste buds. If your child has a favorite candy they get it immediately after. My daughter loves sour candy to be taken right after her gross liquid medicine; i guess it gets rid of the taste for her.

So I guess it is a combination of bribery and tough love

 

[ssmommy]

Our four year old went through the same thing. We added Hershey's chocolate syrup to the dose of Augmentin. She turned willing to take it 2x a day with the syrup. In her case, we had to later change her antibiotic to Biaxin -- that was worse because of the gritty texture and taste. I had a 2 hour stand-off with her on that one . . . she is older so that makes a difference too. We sat at the table for 2 hours - talking, silence, all of that. I knew I had to take the time and make a point with her. During that time, she lost a dessert, her evening tv show -- 8 p.m. hit and I told her we were going to have to take our medicine the "hard way." I put it in a syringe (vs the spoon we were using before), brought her on my lap -- she started crying in anticipation and I put it in her cheek, chin slightly tilted and softly held her mouth closed - blowing on her face to encourage her to swallow. I had apple juice there right away so she could wash it down. She cried and was not happy. It was the toughest I'd ever been with her when it comes to medicine. Again, she just turned 4 so she is older . . . would you believe that the next morning, she came to me and said that she was going to take her medicine after breakfast . . . and she wanted to take it the "hard way." She chose to do it that way -- and took it within a 10 minute time frame vs. the 2 hours. I was very proud of her. Each day she successfully got her medicine. You know your child better than anyone -- try the syrup -- yet keep in the mindset that precedents start early -- and our little ones (CF or not) need to learn how to take care of their littel bodies -- and sometimes, medicine is part of the deal.

 

[Aboveallislove]

meant to add that we do with a syringe and that if you squirt it in the pocket of the check and squish (softly) the cheeks while blowing in the face she cannot spit it out because of swallow reflux. I order syringes on line by the box so I don't have thing to wash! (You can get from pharmacy too if you ask to buy a bunch or maybe a good oen will let you have. The syring works better than a dropper

 

[Justinsmama]

My son (just turned 9) has done about 15 antibiotics (including flagyl twice, cipro and dioxy) in the past 20 months (some of it due to lymes and a foot infection). Anyway, we have mixed it in a 2 ounce cup with juice, plugged his nose, gave candy afterward, let him measure (with my help). Another suggestion is a basket of goodies to choose from, M&M's, stickers, "toys". Hope this works.

 

[triples15]

Thank you all very much for your replies! I really appreciate it!

Soooo...... first I tried the chocolate syrup, it was a no-go. I tried to feed it to her with spoon so that maybe she wouldn't recognize it as medicine, nope, she could smell it and said "meddy" and started crying. So then I just filled the syringe (with the chocolate syrup mixture) and tried to choke it down her like I had been doing, I tried squirting far back in her cheek and held her mouth shut and blew in her face. She STILL somehow spit it out and then coughed/gagged til she threw up!!! Blah.

So the next dose I tried to put in her orange juice (which she loves). So she took one drink of the orange juice and then started sticking her nose down into the cup to smell it.. then says "meddy!". BLAH. This child!

So this morning I called the doctor to tell them I had tried everything and didn't know what to do because I don't think she had gotten even one full dose of medicine. They said they couldn't give her the shot they would normally give kids because she's allergic to Omnicef, which is in the same class of antibiotics as the injection. They offered to change her to Zithromax since it's only once a day and only 5 days. That was a definite no-go because the last time she was on Zithromax we were able to get the medicine down her, but then she literally threw up the entire contents of her stomach after every dose because of the nasty after taste. So the Augmentin is definitely the lesser of two evils in this case, as I don't even think it tastes that bad, she's just resisting for one reason or another.

The one piece of advice the nurse did give me was to PLUG HER NOSE! I thought "sure lady, like that will make a difference". Sure enough, it worked!!! I plugged her nose and then squirted about an ML at a time, with sips of water in between and we got it all in. YAY!!! Thank heavens!! I hope it holds up!

For the record, the flavor is grape. We'll try something different next time. I'm thinking maybe orange (it was one of the flavors they offered) since she loves orange juice. We have to go pick up a refill in a few days because they couldn't mix it all up at once, so we'll see if a different flavor makes any difference. And the dosage is 4 MLs, so it's a decent amount to try to choke down her twice a day. Poor girl!

Anyway, thanks again to everyone!!!

Autumn

 

[Ratatosk]

Until DS was able to swallow pills he was on actigall twice a day, Keflex four times a day, adeks vitamins twice a day, Zithromax once a day on a regular basis. Then when he'd get sinus infections they added augmentin twice a day, Cipro when he got a cough. None of these tasted very good, but he was a trooper and only gave us issues with Septra. He'd spit that out every time. Sometimes it'd help to give him the meds he didn't like while he was sleeping. Thank goodness he was able to swallow pills at a fairly early age.

 

[jshet]

I know she won't swallow a pill, but I would think it would be a small pill or a pill you could cut up with a pill splitter. Try hiding it in chocolate pudding, applesauce, or something she will swallow without heeding to chew. This worked when my son was her age. We used chocolate pudding. Good luck

 

[Melissa75]

This thread made me remember hiding in my basement as a kid, and my mom coming at me with an enormous glass of antibiotic nasty'd OJ.

 

[Ratatosk]

I know of some people who mix the vitamins in with formula; however, we never knew how much, if any ds was going to eat/drink out his bottle. He could've cared less about eating. Plus, one of my friend's kids refuses to drink milk to this day because he hated the taste.

 

[rmotion]

Well she's got spunk, gotta love that. I am 43 and have the same reaction. The quote about flagyl is so true - the worst tasting, cringe, gag taste out there I think that is what kills it, sheer disgustingness. Could you dilute the med to an amount she would drink in say tomato juice, the saltiness might mask it some. Question is how much she can drink. Do they make small enough capsules a baby can swallow?