Getting children to take their medicine

It’s not very nice when your young children are poorly, especially if they have to take medicine such as antibiotics as their taste is often not very pleasant. Most youngsters are pretty used to (and actually like) the taste of standard, over the counter medicines such as Calpol or Nurofen as, to be honest, it’s usually all they’ve been given in their short lives.

I co-run a toy shop selling wooden toys called WoodenToyShop.co.uk. Our toys are warehoused about 5 miles from our home and I work in a converted barn in the grounds of our house. So, when our kids are poorly, I often get called from my office to help out, whether it be with the kids themselves or the other chores that go neglected as Mum is too busy looking after the little ones. My work can suffer as a result and it’s therefore in all our interests to get the little ones well as soon as possible. If it’s antibiotics they are prescribed, you need to finish the course for them to be effective, so if the taste of the alien medicine is not particularly pleasant, what do you do?

My little boy was recently very poorly and was prescribed an aniseed-flavour antibiotic, the taste of which he hated and point blank refused to take it. We tried a few things but it was a miserable experience for him so at work the next day I set to searching how best to administer foul tasting meds effectively.

Now WoodenToyShop.co.uk has a wonderful following on Facebook and many of our fans are parents themselves. So, I thought I’d throw it out there to find out other parents’ tips on getting their children to take their medicine.

We got a great response. It’s obviously a common problem amongst young families. There was some great advice including:

1)      Add the medicine to some juice or yoghurt

2)      Hollow out a jelly baby and add the medicine

3)      Use a syringe rather than a spoon

4)      Teach them to hold their nose to mask the taste

5)      Give them some chocolate or other sweet after the medicine has been swallowed

6)      Give them lots of hugs and praise

7)      Promise them a toy or a trip out once the course of medicine is finished

8)      Add a little bit of sugar to the medicine to improve the taste

We went down the route of mixing it with some juice and using a syringe rather than a spoon and I must say it worked a treat. With the further incentive of a trip to the toy shop once the course of antibiotics was finished, my little boy was reminding us that he was due his medicine in the knowledge that he would be one step closer to the trip to the toy shop.

Thankfully, the course of antibiotics is now complete and my son is back to his old self and we have a new addition to the family, namely a gleaming toy tractor which takes pride of place in the play room.

If you have any advice on getting children to take their medicine, we’d love to hear it!