How do you give meds?

[pixiesmommy]

We are having quite a time here with meds. Up until this point, I have not had an issue with this. In fact, Pixie has been willing and able to take just about any med I put in front of her if she understands that it will help her feel better.

 

We are on 250mg of Augmentin a day now and it is a challenge (to put it mildly) to get her to take it. I have successfully gotten her to drink smoothies and milkshakes with it in there, but sometimes she just wont. I went through half a bottle today with myself and my special needs nanny trying to get her to take it. It is now in my hair, in her hair, was all over her face, my floor, my walls.... everywhere but IN her mouth. She was literally SPITTING it in my face (and I'm anaphylactic to Augmentin, which is super fun to try to not get it in my eyes, nose, or mouth. I'm itching and have hives just from having it on my skin.

 

Ideas??

[KeithandElizabeth]

Hi Manda:

 

We finally taught our 7 year old son how to swallow pills. We were pretty firm about saying he has no choice, but I know this doesn't always work. He loves to take a break and play on the computer and I always say as soon as you take your pill. So, he takes it fast so that he can get on the computer.

 

Elizabeth

[peglem]

We give pills, too, but she was 11 years old before we got that to happen. Before that, we'd crush pills, mix in p-nut butter and put it on pretzels. The liquid was always the hardest, because of the spitting factor, but we could sometimes make that work by pinching her nose so she'd have to swallow to breathe. With the pills, we put it in her mouth, then 2 syringes of water, but she is compliant with that. Another thing that helps is telling her that Dr. S says to take her medicine. She has a little crush on him (I don't blame her-yum!).

[ShaesMom]

We are having quite a time here with meds. Up until this point, I have not had an issue with this. In fact, Pixie has been willing and able to take just about any med I put in front of her if she understands that it will help her feel better.

 

We are on 250mg of Augmentin a day now and it is a challenge (to put it mildly) to get her to take it. I have successfully gotten her to drink smoothies and milkshakes with it in there, but sometimes she just wont. I went through half a bottle today with myself and my special needs nanny trying to get her to take it. It is now in my hair, in her hair, was all over her face, my floor, my walls.... everywhere but IN her mouth. She was literally SPITTING it in my face (and I'm anaphylactic to Augmentin, which is super fun to try to not get it in my eyes, nose, or mouth. I'm itching and have hives just from having it on my skin.

 

Ideas??

 

This sounds EXACTLY like our dd. I can relate to the spitting and wearing the medicine myself. I also have an anaphylactic allergy to penicillin.

 

We have never come across a successful way to give it to her. In fact, we have given up on trying anything new. She will still take her abx, Benadryl and Ibuprofen but she refuses to take anything else. Before the colonoscopy we had to give her Ducolax - my husband and I wrestled her to floor, he held her down, I plugged her nose and then I put the pills in her mouth. For some reason she didn't spit them back out but ended up chewing them and then swallowing with some water. We may have to try other pills in the future to see if this works again. At the hospital, she refused to drink the mag citrate so they had to put a tube in her nose and give her the laxative over a five hour period. She did not enjoy it but maybe next time she will not be so defiant when it comes to new meds.

 

I feel for you girl - this has been more of our major struggles. It causes soooo much stress and anger. We finally learned too not to try to bargin with her for hours--she now gets five minutes to try it on her own and then we do what we need to. Less stress for everyone and we can move on with our day.

[thereishope]

I had that too. Target is a good place for getting liquid meds filled. I love thier syringe. If you need to, ask them if you can see it before you switch pharmacies and they'll explain how it works. You can control dispensing it more and I think it's easier to measure. Anway, when it was the antibiotic, we agreed with my son it would half and half. We'd squirt half into his mouth and then he was ready for the second half, he'd tell us. Otherwise, I think it was too much in his throat at once. When it was the steroid, he hated the taste even more. My husband held him down while I squirted a little at a time by his cheek. That way it would be harder for him to spit out and I had more chances of getting something in him. When he was at his worst, I think I even held him tilted back a little for each squirt and waited for the gulp of swallowing it. I remember sitting there crying wondering how the heck he was going to get better if he didn't take his meds. Over time, he became more complaint and the issue eventually vanished.

[pixiesmommy]

It's such an emotional day today. I'm in so much physical pain from her and totally stressed and sleep-deprived on top of it all. I posted another post about just how to manage her- period.

 

I know that it does her no good for me to feel out of control, but I really feel like I am not in control. We were half an hour into this and she is still fighting and telling me she can't breathe (I did try holding her nose shut) and coughing and spitting on me, and we are both COVERED in her Augmentin and when she bolted from me, I just fell in the floor and cried. My poor almost-two-year-old was screaming and crying from the playpen saying over and over, "No Mommy! I'm sorry, Sissy!" because she had to witness the whole thing.

 

I will check at Target for the syringes and ask if maybe they can fill part of it in pills to see if I can hide those in something. Thanks for the tips.

 

((hugs))

Manda

[dcmom]

I guess my pandas dd is okay with taking the meds. I give her no choice- tell her if she doesn't take it we will use the syringe (which she hates) and if she doesn't swallow it- I will have to take her to Dr for a shot- this always works. (and I mean I guess we could have her do penicillin injections, or whatever if it came down to it)

 

For the steroids, she ate the pill, smashed in a strawberry.

 

She usually gets a chaser of a few chocolate chips

[thereishope]

Having your other children see it is the worst. You don't want them to think they're hurting their sister or brother. It's sad the day you have to chase and wrestle your child to the floor or bear hug them from behind while wrapping your legs around them. All while their making animalistic sounds. Great, now I'm tearing up.

 

 

It's such an emotional day today. I'm in so much physical pain from her and totally stressed and sleep-deprived on top of it all. I posted another post about just how to manage her- period.

 

I know that it does her no good for me to feel out of control, but I really feel like I am not in control. We were half an hour into this and she is still fighting and telling me she can't breathe (I did try holding her nose shut) and coughing and spitting on me, and we are both COVERED in her Augmentin and when she bolted from me, I just fell in the floor and cried. My poor almost-two-year-old was screaming and crying from the playpen saying over and over, "No Mommy! I'm sorry, Sissy!" because she had to witness the whole thing.

 

I will check at Target for the syringes and ask if maybe they can fill part of it in pills to see if I can hide those in something. Thanks for the tips.

 

((hugs))

Manda

[thereishope]

Oh and at Target, the syringes come with a prescription. Maybe ask them if you can have one to see if it works with your child.

[pixiesmommy]

She is drinking a smoothie tonight w/probiotics and kid calm, etc in it with no problem... so we are back and forth on whether she'll take it like that.

 

My problem with adding abx to drinks or food is that she will often not eat the food (or eat part of it) and then I am up the creek. She'll definitely decline it if she knows it's in there. She is very picky about food right now and only eating at very particular times of day (only in evening- dinner and before bed) too.

 

It's a total nuthouse here.

[EAMom]

Manda...is 250mg/day full-strength for Augmentin? I think (esp. if it is only 1x daily) that is only prophylactic strength. I would definitely go to full strength...esp. if Pixie still isn't doing all that great at 3 weeks post IVIG (it sounds like things aren't). BTW, Sammy (from the "Saving Sammy" book) was up at 2000mg of Augmentin per day (not all in one dose...I think divided 2x per day) for quite a while. If Pixie were my dd and things were so bad at home I would be demanding the highest possible dose for her size and if that didn't work I would want to switch to Azith (even if there is reported Azith. resistance in that area). (Eventually, Sammy was able to go down to lower doses...but when he was bad he needed the high doses, he didn't respond to conservative doses.)

 

Our pandas dd learned to swallow pills when she got was diagnosed (7 years old). I don't think she knew how before that. I always watch her to make sure they get swallowed. For a while she would only take the pills she was used to and would get suspicious/resistant if we tried to change anything (if there was a new pill or an extra pill). IMO, pills are way easier than liquid!

 

The only thing I've ever sneaked into foods have been fish oil and probiotics.

[peglem]

Okay, I hope this doesn't sound too barbaric, but here's what I used to have to do:

 

I put Allie on her back and straddle her just above the waste, pinning her arms to her side with my knees. It was a given that I was going to be kneed and kicked in the back- I learned to ignore it. With the syringe, (even if she clamped her mouth shut) I'd give tiny amounts into the cheek, then wait for a swallow, tiny bit more...until its all dispensed. My child is also very good about getting out of holds, and I had to completely ignore what the rest of her body was doing and just concentrate on the head and upper torso. Even with her arms pinned, she would manage to scratch me and pinch me pretty good. But, I did manage to deliver the medicine she needed that way. She's very compliant with meds now...but it was about 6 years that we had to give it this way.

[Suzan]

I just wanted to add my HUGS to you. Between my girls, I have a pill taker and a non-pill taker. But my pill taker is very taste sensitive so if I have to give her any liquid, she used to vomit immediately. Even though she can take pills, this does not mean she wants to take them and every day is a struggle. What ends up working for us is making it a game. Usually it's where I challenge her to take whatever she needs to take before "X" (X being before I get back from changing my clothes, before the clock hit's 7:45am, before I'm done eating breakfast, before you finish going to the bathroom (yes really!), etc.). This is hugely annoying to me but it really helps her to take her pills. If it's a liquid she needs to take, this is not always as productive but it still is useful.

 

Anyway, I have had to do all kinds of things to get the meds in and it's been stressful, unsuccessful... I have at times had to threaten her with suppositories and shots (these threats usually worked too).

 

The Target syringes really are the best. We need to get something filled there to get another one!

 

My younger dd does not take pills. She will be 7 soon. I feel like she will never learn. I am lucky that she will take any nasty combination I offer her. She complains a lot but will do it without it coming back up.

 

HUGS!!!!

 

Susan

[thereishope]

Just go to the Target counter and tell them the tip cracked off. One time it was like that in the bag. But it only happened once. They'll give you another no problem.

 

Threats never worked with my son during an episode.

[T_Mom]

Pixie,

There is hope beyond this difficult period of time. I am sorry I do not remember, but is your child specifically PANDAS or are there other diagnoses? If PANDAS, I don't mean to be simplistic-- but MANY of us have seen dramatic CHANGES in behaviors with antibiotics--however, like Sammy's story, our daughter only reacted positively to FULL strength antibiotics.

 

I know I have said this before, but when faced with difficult life-changing behaviors -- as you have described -- we chose to try what we consider a relatively benign possible help: Full strength antibiotics for an extended period of time. I figured it was worth a try. For us it was.

 

Is there a doctor that would be willing to try this if you wanted to--what do you think of this?

Best to you -- hang in there, praying for you.