How to give medicine to a baby/child - Part Two
Aug 11th, 2006 by Lilian
Don’t be alarm by the amount of medicines. These are actually medicines belonging to two children and some are not part of the prescription. They are just for photo shooting. 
There are three types of cough medicines, two for runny nose, two for fever and one antibiotic.
I have found three sites with very detailed instructions, guides, tips or whatever you call it on how to give medicines. Therefore, I will not elaborate on the finer details but writing about my experiences.
How the nurses do it (to headstrong babies who refused medicine)
- Put in syringe and slowly pump into inner cheeks of small baby while cooing and stroking the baby’s forehead
- Hold the jaw if the baby wants to spit it out. This way, the baby will have no choice but to swallow at the next scream they make
- Someone else will be needed to hold the head from turning away.
- To ease the process, swaddle up a kicking baby.
I know these seem cruel but it is better than to let a baby suffers if medicines aren’t given to ease their discomforts.
What if the baby spit/vomit?
- For most medicines, the nurses will NOT measure the same amount and feed again because we cannot be sure how much was vomitted or spitted. Doctors have told me to wait for the next schedule to feed again. Some medicine may have gone down and absorbed into the body really fast, so don’t give an additional dose.
- However, for fever medicines, it has to be given again if the fever did not go down and you are absolutely sure that all had been spitted out. Usually, fever medicines given orally (by mouth) will react within 30 minutes. In the interim, trying cooling down by sponging.
When all else fail..
Do not adopt these methods unless you have no other choices:
- Add the medicine into the milk feeds. Make only one or two ozs of milk/breast milk and add the medicines. This way, it will ensure that the baby finishes the medicine
Gadgets
There are fanciful stuffs sold in stores to feed a baby medicine. I don’t see how they help. The best way to give a baby medicine is to use the syringe as shown in the picture and pump it to the inner cheek. Don’t just shoot/spray it direct into the mouth because you may choke the baby with the sudden spurt of medicine. Let it drip down the inner cheek.
Give the right dosage!
Assuming you have babysitter/maids/older folks, make sure you label your medicines correctly. Usually, the labels from the pharmacies in hospitals can be vague because we only see the large ink, with numbers. Some caregivers may mixed up the amount (in mls) with the number of times. So, write your own measure with another marker, make the number of mls (mililitre) clearly. Then, write down the time to give your child the medicine in a separate piece of paper. This way, you will help your older folks from remembering how, when, etc.
For older toddlers
When they are old enough to reason, make it firm that they have to take the medicines. An easy explanation for a child is to tell him that the medicines are the soldiers/superman/superhero or whatever term your child is familiar and the germs in the body is the bad guys. I reward him with claps from all his siblings. Any attempts by him to vomit is not tolerated. However, he still will do his stunts so I have to remind my paed to keep the medicines to only the necessary. He will also try to prescribe the more expensive drugs with less dosage or any type of medicines that needs only a few drops.
For e.g. I will rather have him running around with a runny nose or coughing mildly than to struggle with the medicines. I made him take his antibiotics (if any) and fever medicines at separate times so that he is unlikely to throw everything out. I also see that I don’t give him medicine when he just had a meal. But do give some crackers right after the medicine.
For even older children
I look forward most to the times when my children are old enough to swallow tablets and pills. Then, the task of giving medicine is over. Usually, a child has to be around 12 years old before they can be given tablets and pills as the dosage are tailored for adults.
If I can think of more things, I shall write part three. Meantime, do read up here:
and I hope one of the greatest parenting nightmares of giving medicines to a child is solved.