Tag:antibiotic, baby, fever, medicine, sick, sore throat

Our little prince is turning one year old next week.

He has been very good all this while. Only visit the doctor for his regular vacination. But recently about two weeks ago, he was not too well, with fever and sore throat and hoarse voice. It must have been a very stubborn bacteria infection which just refuse to clear even after two courses of antibiotic. He still has a little bit of hoarse voice.  He must have gotten it from my wife who was not well with more or less same symptoms just a few days before he was down with fever.

We have been having a hard time feeding him his medicine. It is breaks our heart  to see him cry every time when he sees the medicine. He seems to understand our conversation when it comes to feeding medicine time. If he can run, I think he would have run away from the medicine.

His doctor took his blood for some tests to check for any infections yesterday. He did not cry when the doctor poked his hand to draw the blood. Out of curiosity, he just watched the whole event without a sound. What a brave boy. Daddy is so proud of you. The result came back today and all is well. But he still have to continue with his antibiotic for a few more days to ensure that the bacteria is totally destroyed :-(  How I wish he doesn’t have to continue with his antibiotic. He has been on it for the past week. Guess for his own good, we have to bear with the sight of him refusing the medicine for a few more days.

He is a very active boy, climbing up and down all the time when he is well. It breaks our heart when he is not well. Do get well soon son.

Tag:antibiotic, baby, feeding medicine tips

If you have challenges feeding medicine to your child when he is sick, do not get frustrated.

You are not alone. My 11 1/2 months old son  fell sick recently and doctor prescribed antibiotic for his sore throat. The challenge began when we reached home to feed him his medicine. Initially he opened his mouth to take the medicine, but when he realised that the medicine did not taste like the food he normally takes, he put on a struggle. It was impossible to feed him alone. We have to work in pairs. One to hold him and one to shoot the medicine into his mouth using a syringe. It was a heartbreaking sight to see him struggled and cried his heart out. At his young age, he did not know that it will do him good. At times when he cried and struggled too much, he will vomit out the medicine. If that happens, all the effort and the joy of succeeding in getting the medicine into his body go down the drain. So the challenge is to get the medicine into his stomach at the shortest time possible with minimal struggle and crying and to keep the medicine inside once it is in.

After many trials and error, I found that the few tips listed below are quite effective.

1. Keep him distracted at all times by showing him things or toys that he likes.

2. If you are a Christian, pray with him first before you give him the medicine. It is really a miracle to see the result. There will be less struggle and sometimes he will open his mouth willingly. Talk about the power of prayer.

3. Point the syringe to the “cheek pocket” and inject about 1 ml to 1.5ml of medicine at a time into the “cheek pocket”. In this way, less medicine will reach his tongue and minimise the taste of the medicine. This will enable him to swallow it down easily.

4. Immediately distract him again by showing things that he likes or take him for a walk around the room or house. This will prevent him from crying too much and minimise the risk of vomiting.

5. Repeat the same procedures until the syringe is empty. But try to minimise to number of times forcing the medicine into him.

Hopefully the above helps to overcome the challenges in feeding your child medicine and makes medicine feeding time a less heart breaking experience.