Toddlers and Medicines

Medicine time has always been a struggle in our household, even for medications that taste good. Lately, we've discovered a way that works for our child.

Our issues from the different dosing methods we've tried are:

1) The droppers that come with the medicine are cr*p. This is true for Loviscol and Disudrin drops. They have markings for up to 1.2ml or 1ml but you keep squeezing and squeezing and the medicine level never gets up to that point.

2) The droppers are too small. For Tylenol or any store-brand infant's acetamenophen, my son's weight and age require him to have 1.6ml but the droppers come to only 0.8 ml only. So you have to get 0.8ml, chase a toddler, hold him down & get him to take the medicine and after all that, you're only halfway! You have to do it all over again.

3) Measuring cups are hard to use for thicker medications (for example, suspension antibiotics) so after measuring out the correct amount of liquid, the next problem is how to get all of that into your toddler's mouth ? He will not sit patiently with his mouth open just so you could pour the medicine in.

With that, here are our recommendations:

(1) Bigger droppers

We got this last month when we had Swe-cha's antibiotics filled at Stop & Shop's pharmacy. The pharmacist asked us if we wanted a measuring spoon or a dropper and I asked which was easier to use for a toddler, she gave us this giant dropper.

I was so happy when I first used this because previously, we had to make do with a measuring spoon (shaped like a test tube) and it took such a long time for the medicine to slide out.

You don't have to go to the pharmacy for these, I've seen this on sale at baby stores, I just never realized that they were that useful. Oh, and note that your bottle has to have a wide mouth for you to be able to use this.

(2) Syringe

At friend R's recommendation, we tried out Target's pharmacy last weekend. She's been telling me about the syringe that they give and how easy it was to give medicine using that.

Totoo nga! How could I have doubted her experience ? *smile*

It's easy to just squeeze out a little at a time into my toddler's mouth and wait till he swallows it before I squeeze out a little bit more.

I also like Target's medicine bottle. It comes with this cap at the top, the hole is just big enough to insert the tip of the syringe. To get medicine, you're supposed to:

- insert tip of the syringe into the hole at the cap until it is snug

- invert bottle & measure out the correct dose

- turn bottle right side up and twist the syringe out

Oh, and for anyone wondering what that green ring is ? At Target pharmacy, you can specify a ring color and assign a color to a member of your family. Say, Daddy's are blue, Mommy's are red and so on. The color coded rings make it easier to recognize medications at a glance (because the bottles are all alike).