Seeking creative ideas for getting those daily ABX into my DD6

[AmySLP]

My daughter has been taking prophylaxis ABX for nearly a year now. We have changed from liquids (after getting this spit back on me for days) to pills as soon as I taught her to swallow the pills cut small with pudding. She hates the pills crushed. LAst night it took nearly an hour to get her to be able to take the pills (which eventually I crushed!) Now she's asking for liquid again but I know it will not change the length of this whole process and I worry about how much she actually takes in after spitting most of it out. She asks me each night when she will be done taking pills (I never know how to answer that question so I try to change the subject!) I'm looking for your tips and ideas is any of you are dealing with the same problems.

 

Thanks, Amy

[PhillyPA]

I am sure that people will take issue with my methods. Especially those who stay away from dyes. However, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that a once normal functioning child who gets pandas overnight now has a problem with dyes. So - I put the medicine in a little medicine cup and I add a squirt of Hershey's strawberry syrup and stir with a straw. Then, I give him the straw and the little medicine cup and I say "drink". He loves it. If strawberry isn't her thing, try chocolate or caramel (although those are thicker than the strawberry).

 

Even Dr. Latimer told me not to worry about dyes. Every child is different. My child has no problem with dyes.

Edited January 18, 2011 by PhillyPA

[SSS]

I give my dd5's medications in a flavored liquid form (strawberry) and I use a syringe, and squirt in at the very back side of her mouth, she is sort of forced to swallow it this way. I follow with letting her have a sip off a juice box (which she doesn't get otherwise.)

This probably won't be very popular, but, she knows if she doesn't take it, I will actually lay her down on the floor and make her take it :-/ Haven't had to actually do that yet, but I have showed starting to-- y'know, gotta get this stuff down.

[peglem]

What I do is stick the pill at the back of her tongue and follow up with 2 syringes of water.

[Kayanne]

The only time we had to go through hoops was when my PANDAS daughter was at her worst, and she was taking clindamycin. The liquid was impossible to take, so we changed to capsules. I would coat a spoon with chocolate pudding, carefully put in the powder, and then use another spoon to carefully drop a dollop of pudding to cover the powder...it made it tolerable. It was a 3 spoon process. The first spoonful was regular pudding, the second was the medicine pudding, and the 3rd was regular pudding...we were happy to get the calories in her too.

 

When we switched to pen vk as a prophylaxis, I thought that stuff was nasty -- so at first we rewarded her with M&Ms...until she got used to it.

 

Currently, we give liquid Omnicef...no problems. When she used to ask a lot about how long she needs to take this, I would just tell her we don't know for sure, but probably until she is around 20yrs old. For her, she just needs an answer, otherwise she would think too much about it.

[KaraM]

When she takes the liquid, we have the pharmacy flavor it with rasberry (they can do many different flavors).

 

We found putting a timer on helped. She would see the count down and drink it before it hit zero. Depending on the day, that alone was enough. Sometimes, we'd have to threaten taking away a privilege that was important to her - like play time with a friend or screen time. Sometimes we'd offer an incentive.

 

She wanted to try a pill. Crushed it is nasty. But if you can just cut it into two or three pieces so they're easy to swallow, then the taste may not be as bad.

[mom love]

Amy, I crush a zithromax for my children to take each day. I do use an actual pill crusher that really gets it into a powder. We have found that they do the best with chocolate ice cream. I put about 2 tablespoons of ice cream in a small bowl, let it get soft and mix it like soft serve ice cream and mix it all up. We do it in 2 big spoonfuls. They do ok with it and follow by regular scoop of ice cream or cookie. Washing down with milk helps too.

 

Otherwise, I have heard from our pharmacist that root beer masks anything.

[browneyesmom]

Ah, the battle to get the meds that help them into their bodies. I have utilized several methods mentioned in this thread as well as telling her she can "chase" it with something (and I let her choose, although I'm usually pretty strict about her diet due to her hypoglycemia - if she chooses something high in sugar, the agreement is that she has to have it with milk). I've used applesauce in addition to pudding and I have had to hide them in bites of food to get them in her too. Sometimes, waiting until she is past an episode works also... just an hour or so. If I see one beginning and it is near time for meds, I get them in her as fast as I can b/c I know my window is limited - amazingly, that has often worked.

 

I also tell her that I do not know how long she will have to take them, but that they are to help her get better and once she no longer needs them, we can stop. That seems to satisfy her and she rarely asks now. Sometimes, that question (for my DD) has to do with ... "How long do I have to take THIS antibiotic?" In which case, it's simple to tell her that the prescription is for x days. If they extend it, I tell her that & for how long if she asks.

[Megs_Mom]

If she is currently taking an hour on average to take, you could also set up a reward & reduce the amount of time it takes her each day. For example, if she takes it in 55 minutes, she can have a book at tuck in (or a card game, whatever she likes). This is very acheivable, and then you reduce it in 3 minute increments each day. If she is a competive kid, also set other times - so 30 minutes is worth a half an hour of TV, 15 minutes is worth a movie night, 5 minutes is movie night with a friend. Then reduce your rewards after a week. Maybe a full 2 weeks of 5 minutes is worth something really special.

 

If it takes her longer than the goal (60 to start) then she may lose a privledge - such as TV, dessert, play time, etc.

 

Good luck!

[PhillyPA]

Whatever method you use,know that something will work and it will get better. When my son first started to take medicine, I would set my alarm for 5:00am everyday and wake him up. I knew I had to get that dose in before school as well as a steroid. Sometimes it would take 90 minutes to get it all in him. It was so hard but I was determined to get that medicine in him. Now, the whole process takes 30 seconds.

[kferricks]

With the prednisone, I actually had to take the kid out and buy her a special milkshake to take them everyday. When she had the Omnicef capsuls, I took a small jelly glass and mixed the capsul with any kind of pop I could find. But the Omnicef liquid is really nasty to her. So, I like the idea above of using strawberry....you know, I wonder how she would like it if I mixed it in a shot of icecream... this thread has given me a couple ideas that I will surely try to put to use.

[emmalily]

Hi,

I read how hard it is for your daughter to take her pill and I wanted to offer a little help. When I was little a lot of times if I was afraid of something (or didn't like it) and was resistant to it, if an older kid did it sometimes I would go along to kind of prove to them I was cool and just as grown up too. You sort of get shamed into doing it and figure if the older so-and-so is doing it then maybe it is worth doing. Anyway, I just wanted to offer, I'd be happy to do something for your daughter (like write an e-mail) telling her that I have to take the antibiotics too. Or (I don't know how you feel about tricking her) you could make up a letter and say it's from an older PANDAS kid---it might work to shame her into it.

 

Also, you mentioned bribery, but I can imagine how it would be tough to find a new bribe every day, so I just wanted to share with you how my third grade teacher bribed us into behaving. We all had a big star with our picture on it hanging in the back of the room. Every time we did something good we got a star sticker to put on it. Each time we collected five (or ten, can't remember) stickers we got to go the principal and get a present out of the grab bag she had--candy necklaces, key chains, etc. So maybe something like that, where she can see the stickers go up every time she takes her pill would not only help you not have to come up with a bribe everyday, but would also reinforce that she has to take the pills for awhile.

 

Emmalily

[peglem]

If she is currently taking an hour on average to take, you could also set up a reward & reduce the amount of time it takes her each day. For example, if she takes it in 55 minutes, she can have a book at tuck in (or a card game, whatever she likes). This is very acheivable, and then you reduce it in 3 minute increments each day. If she is a competive kid, also set other times - so 30 minutes is worth a half an hour of TV, 15 minutes is worth a movie night, 5 minutes is movie night with a friend. Then reduce your rewards after a week. Maybe a full 2 weeks of 5 minutes is worth something really special.

 

If it takes her longer than the goal (60 to start) then she may lose a privledge - such as TV, dessert, play time, etc.

 

Good luck!

OMG! You are so good!

[Megs_Mom]

If she is currently taking an hour on average to take, you could also set up a reward & reduce the amount of time it takes her each day. For example, if she takes it in 55 minutes, she can have a book at tuck in (or a card game, whatever she likes). This is very acheivable, and then you reduce it in 3 minute increments each day. If she is a competive kid, also set other times - so 30 minutes is worth a half an hour of TV, 15 minutes is worth a movie night, 5 minutes is movie night with a friend. Then reduce your rewards after a week. Maybe a full 2 weeks of 5 minutes is worth something really special.

 

If it takes her longer than the goal (60 to start) then she may lose a privledge - such as TV, dessert, play time, etc.

 

Good luck!

OMG! You are so good!

Coming from you???? Mom of the CENTURY? Just had to find a LOT of ways to even get dressed, move through the house, face life when everything told her to pull up the covers and quit. And even the covers were scary, so not a lot of options but to try to live head on. A bit time consuming , but better than the alternative we were presented with at the time.

 

I am in love with azithromyacin, Dr. L, Dr. C, ERP, Duke's psychologist, our immunologist, Vit D and my strong brave unbelievably couragous daughter who taught me that anything I fear is minor compared to what she has already overcome. Oh, and my husband .