Ear Infection

[flea]

Amoxicillin. Still exactly as it was the last time I remember taking it, which was some 15 years ago. (Pink. Bubblegum flavored.)

The doctor's office was amusing - we had a fresh resident and a medical student observing. She quizzed him on signs of dehydration in an infant. He stammered. The grown-up doctor came in at the end and confirmed the diagnosis, and used a special ear-looker (otoscope - I do know the real word) so he and med student could look at the same time.

Any advice on getting recalcitrant babies to take medicine? We have tried: mixed in applesauce (works, except when she vomits up the whole thing or refuses to eat any applesauce, having figured out there is medicine in it), many small sips from a cup followed by sips of water (works, except when it doesn't, or when about halfway through the dose she starts carefully drooling the medicine out of the corners of her mouth), and the syringe in the throat (if done all at once, causes vomiting; if done slowly, same as sips from a cup.) I've had an easier time giving cats pills than trying to get Motrin in this kid. The Amox. was a bath of pink stickiness - I hope enough got down the throat to count.

Home from work today, because of doctor visit. Job is going through a tedious phase, or rather I am going through a phase of finding my job tedious.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Oh, do I have experience with Amox and kids. Sigh. I think squirting into the side of the mouth worked better than down the throat; less choking. And, God, it's exactly like pilling a cat, down to the finger in the corner of the mouth to make the kid open.

Once, in desperation, I mixed a particularly hard-to-stomach med with chocolate ice cream. (That one got vomited back up at me, making it clear that the med and the daughter were just not compatible.)

Do you have eleven days of Amoxicillin? If so, you might try chocolate ice cream. Or any other strongly-flavored ice cream.

Also, Amoxicillin STAINS. BIG-TIME. Use a bib if at all possible.

[cindyamb.livejournal.com]

Squirting in the side of the mouth, with the dropper/syringe is what worked for us, too. I never bothered to disguise antibiotics in the food. Something always went wrong when we tried this with another med Julia was on, once. The food got vomited or spit out, or spilled, or went uneaten, and I was never sure how much medicine she took.

There have been ages where we've both had to be present to administer the medicine--one to hold the child down, and the other just to handle the mouth and dropper.

(Wait 'til you have to put in eye drops for conjunctivitis. You have not lived, I tell ya.)

Also? Rewards. Now I know she's little, and you don't probably give her junk, but unless your doctor would freak, or there's a strong medical reason, a little bit of a goody (candy, ice cream, cookie, whatever is not an awful idea in your mind) after the medicine will teach her there are desirable consequences to taking it. Sure, her desirable consequences are getting a piece of a goody (or a sip of a favorite drink--ginger ale isn't entirely unredeemable), but since there are desirable consequences in grown-up world, too--recovery from the infection--it's not a bad association to make.

[holli.livejournal.com]

Am I the only kid who thought Amoxycillin was delicious, and looked forward to taking it? Huh.

For me, it was the only good thing about strep throat.