1) Injection.
This is very painful and expensive. You also have to drive to the Doctors for this.
2) Tablets
The most common way. But you'd waste more when the child has trouble swallowing them. Never mind the fancy-wancy table cutters or crushers. They're just a waste of money. You can crush them into powder form and mix them into their favourite drink but this is only effective for the first three times (if you're lucky) before they discover the ruse.
3) Anal tablets
I am not sure what they're called but they're not cheap either. Not only that, you'd have to fight the child and stick it up there at the same time. Unfortunately, depending on the sickness, alas, the medication in this form is not vey common.
4) Syrups
Although they are sweet, it is still not effective enough in masking the smell. They come in either clear syrup or milky goo. Still, a child can sense when you're going to give them medication straight away. Mixing them into drinks is also an effective way but you'd also run the risk of wasting a lot if they do not want their favourite drinks all of a sudden.
That is why whenever Kristine or Kaelynn is sick, it is torture for us. On average, it took us about an hour to get Kristine to take her medication. We'd have to persuade her, we have to play the "Good cop, Bad cop" routine, we have to become wrestlers and so on. We even have to beg too. Haih.
During these ordeal, how I wished that they would have invented the method of putting medication into plaster patches or even those injectors you see in Star trek. Just hold the injector to the skin and "psssh!" its done. No pain involved. And with the plaster patch, all we have to do is wait for her to fall asleep before using it on her.
And just after she swallowed the medicine, the most infuriating thing is, three seconds later, she would change to a happy face as if she has accomplished something phenomenal and that the last hour never happened. So off she goes, happily jumping about, leaving the two of us exhausted on the floor.
I could show you her suffering face but then, my camera broke.
Man, talk about kids.
[Update: 31/12/2007]
Here are some shots I managed to take with my Wife's Nokia 6300
This goes on anything from 15 to an hour before
Krsitine calms down. And it won't work with the
syringe trick (below). So, its the usual cane, words,
"Good cop, Bad Cop" routine for Kristine.
While Kaelynn just took hers without any fuss
We gave her a syringe to "play" with, and then
slowly insert the medicine bit by bit until she
does it herself.
2 comments:
Have u tried the 'reward' method? Tell them if they eat their medicine diligently everyday until they're well, they'll get a reward. Make the reward something they can look forward to, e,g, a trip to McD so they can have their favourite food, and play at the play area.
Every time they refuse to take their medicine remind them there's a reward waiting at the end of it all, which they won't get unless they eat their medicine.
Worked well with my sister.
Heh. Tried that. She wants everything, even the reward but not the medicine. Ha ha ha ha
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