I hate feeling like the overreacting mom who calls the advice nurse for nothing. I hate wasted copays. I hate dragging my daughter to the doctor, where she bursts into tears the second the nurse calls her name.
Know what I hate more, though? Wondering if Peeper is sicker than I’m pretty sure she is.
Peeper has had a cold since February and a cough for half that time. Lately, she sometimes coughs until she gags or cries. This crud is going around Portland, but I called her pediatrician’s nurse anyway. They scheduled a check-up, just in case.
Thankfully, Peeper’s lungs are clear and her ears are healthy. The doctor diagnosed a sinus infection, though. I’ll take that over whooping cough any day. Yes, Peeper has been vaccinated, but with childhood diseases like measles making such a comeback, I fear the same illnesses my great-grandparents did.
Anyway, we were sent home with two whole bottles of antibiotics. After lunch, it was time for Peeper’s first dose—5.5 milliliters. Now that sounds like a tiny amount, but for a child who refuses any medicine, it was like asking her to please drink the entirety of Lake Michigan.
I pretended to take some. I acted like it was a special treat. But at the first taste, she refused. “No like it,” she told me and hid behind my back.
We’ve gone through this before when Peeper spiked a fever and when she broke out in body suit of hives. We tried just squirting in medicine. We tried mixing it in favorite foods. We tried nearly every trick we’d heard. Nothing works.
So today I did something different—something that is very outside my normal.
I fed her the antibiotics one little squirt at a time—topped with a chunk of Fudgecicle.
Peeper doesn’t really eat sugar. She’s probably had a total of two cookies her whole life (despite her cousin’s constant pleading to share them with her at Christmas), and she rarely gets sweets of any kind. There are plenty of ways to feed your kid, and this is just what we’ve chosen.
That all went out the window when I considered how in the hell I’d make her swallow that syrup.
Was bribing my toddler to take medicine with a frozen chocolate pop my best parenting moment? No.
But when faced with the alternative, I decided that an untreated sinus infection was worse than a little sugar buzz.
Now we have 10 days of twice-daily doses of Fudgecicle ahead of us. And that is much better than 10 days of coughing, pain and wondering if I should be doing more.
It’s better she gets it no matter how she does! And you can never be the overreacting mum no matter what you might feel! Only two weeks ago I took my daughter to the doctors with the same kind of symptoms to be turned away with “she’ll get over it on her own”. One week later and my daughter is now depending on a temporary inhaler and a bottle of antibiotics. Thankfully she likes the medicine!
Oh no! I hope she gets better soon—and that’s so lucky she likes the medicine! I wonder if our almost-no-sugar policy ruined her on the super-sweet medicines other kids seem to like, haha. And I totally agree that moms know best—learning to trust my instincts is probably the most important skill I’ve developed as a mama.
Glad you found a way to get Edie to take her medicine, although I think you should’ve first tried the jumping-off-the-chair routine. xoxo
I wholeheartedly embrace the fudgsicle bribe. I have fed my children much, much worse and without medicine as the prompt!
Haha! Yeah, I’m sure worse is on Peeper’s horizon, too—this is just the beginning I’m sure. ESPECIALLY now that she knows to ask for “special treat!”
Glad that you found a way. That has got to be frustrating for you.
Yes – especially because I just want her to feel better. And I don’t like that this method gives her a new symptom – a sugar buzz!
Thank goodness you found a way that works. I vaguely recollect my dad when I was a kid literally wrestling with me on the ground to make me take medicine!
Ugh that sounds miserable! I used to have to jump off a chair to swallow a pill of any kind. Kids!
I have been there too! We rarely give our kids sugar and almost never give them juice, but when my daughter got sick on her birthday and wouldn’t drink anything, we started adding juice to her water to get fluids in her. We slowly had to wean her off once she was better. I hated giving her the unnecessary sugar, but I agree, you have to weigh your options to do what is best for your child overall. Sometimes that takes getting creative and doing something you wouldn’t normally do as a parent. I hope that Peeper gets better quickly!
Her, hear to your conclusion! We just “offered” D one episode of TV daily if he’ll eat his healthy food and avoid the unhealthy food at school. This way he feels like he’s getting something instead of just losing, and there is so much less frustration coupled with his increasing health. Someone could probably do it without TV, but for me? Those 20 minutes offered make a world of difference.
Less punishment, more reward – sounds like a good plan to me!
Oh, poor girl!!! I’m so glad it wasn’t anything worse than a sinus infection! I hope she feels 100% again soon!
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So having had an 18 mo. old with the flu early this year, I have one thing to say…. Don’t knock it if it works! The ONLY way I could get my child to eat was to feed him muffins and banana bread type things that he mistook for cake. Added to that Tamiflu makes you feel queasy anyway he did not keep down his first dose. After that it was on to bribery. That stopped working 2 doses in. Final thing that did work? Disguised it in a small amount of chocolate milk. (It was recommended for adults to take it with chocolate syrup to try and keep it down on the medicine instructions.) Now he gets chocolate milk when he feels bad no matter what kind of bad it is. I am hedging my bets against another medicine that I have to hide.
Absolutely! We now give Peeper her medicine in a treat as a matter of routine. Thankfully she stays pretty healthy, but you gotta do what you gotta do!