Vent--how the heck do you give oral meds to a reflux baby?

So my daughter has an infection and needs to take an antibiotic...#1 she has reflux so it will rarely stay down no matter what/when/how I give it to her....#2 it takes like crap (even with flavoring added...I tasted it myself)...#3 why oh why do Dr.'s do that knowing they have reflux???

FRUSTRATED!

Poor thing...I'm worried about her infection and the fact she's not keeping down any antibiotic...

I've mixed it with a small amount of formula (yuck, she hates it)
I've given it to her while she'd drinking her bottled (in the corner of her mouth)...spits it out
I've tried just putting it in her bottle (no dice)
I've tried giving it to her via the dropper and she hates the way it tastes plus her tongue thrust reflux is still pretty strong and pushes it out

I wish they'd make antbiotics in a supository form...I think that is the only way I'd have any luck.

VENT!!!

 

Does she take solids yet? I remember trying to disguise it in purees at one point. Depending on what it was, it sometimes hid the flavor pretty well. I remember having to lay my refluxer back into a boppy and slowly squirt the tiniest amounts into the very very back of his mouth so that he couldn't spit it out. It took forever, but it usually worked. Have you tried doing it right in the morning before a bottle so that you can reward her with the bottle when it's all over? I'm reaching for anything here. My MIL always told me to put it in his mouth and then blow in his face b/c he would startle and forget that it was in his mouth for a second. I never tried that one. Good luck, I know it's so hard to get medicine in a baby and even more so in one that has reflux.

 

No solids yet...her tongue trust reflex is still pretty strong outwards (gonna try when they are a few weeks older)...I may try to squirt it way in the back of her mouth, but I'm afraid she'll gag...thanks for offering the advice. It's just soooo frustrating. It's just so aweful smell/tasting...I even think that when she spits up, it tastes even worse for her coming up.

I think I may call the pedi tomorrow and see if there is something else they can give her.

Sigh...

 

if you try squirting it way back there, try to go off to the side. So put the dropper in the very back of the cheek. Less gag there and it should kind slide back without worrying too much about the tongue thrust pushing it out. Again, good luck. What's she on btw that tastes so yucky?

 

I always gave it to my boys in a nipple of a bottle mixed with like 5mls of juice to hide the taste. If that didn't work then I would put it in the back of his cheek bit by bit until it was down. Best of luck

 

One of my girls was like this. The pedi suggested getting the syringe into the side of the cheek, squirt it in fast, and then hold their cheeks together (teeth open) until they swallowed. It always took two of us to do this, and I felt like the worst mother EVER, but it really did work.

 

When my DS started on zantac he HATED the taste of it. We laid him in our arms, put the syringe in the side of his mouth as far back as we could go, and gave it a little at a time so that there wasn't enough for him to spit back out at us. It can work to put your hand under the chin and hold the mouth closed...sounds bad but kind of like pilling a cat but without the claws

 

This was what we were always told to do as well. Good luck!

 

Uhm, if you're desperate, you can blow a puff of air at their noses/mouths. It activates an instinctive swallow reflex in babies and animals. Works on my dog, too.

I wouldn't do it if it's a long term daily med, but for a round of antibiotics, I might resort to it.

For Kepler's zantac & prevacid, I use a syringe and squirt it a few tenths of a ml at a time at the very back corner of his mouth. This seems to help a lot. The zantac tastes *awful* but the prevacid is sweeter. I do this with their d vitamin doses, too.