How to give a baby medicine in the form of a tablet or syrup correctly - instructions for parents

The site "I am your baby" warns: the information is given for information only, and is not a medical recommendation. Before using the medicine, be sure to consult your doctor!

When young children are sick, one of the major problems in their treatment is taking medication. Toddlers do not yet know how to swallow pills, in addition, the drugs themselves can be bitter or simply unpleasant for the child to taste. What if you need to give medicine to a child who is not yet able to understand why he should drink "this muck"? There are special methods and "tricks", knowing which, parents can easily give the child a syrup or pill.

How to give your baby medicine in the form of a syrup or suspension

A syrup or suspension is one of the most “gentle” drug options for a child. Very often, children's drugs in such a dosage form have flavoring additives and most babies are tolerated calmly. When prescribing a medicine in the form of a syrup or suspension, you must use the following rules:

We find out what dosage is needed. Since the medicine is in liquid form, it will be in milliliters. For many drugs of this kind, there are measuring spoons or syringes in the kit, but if they are not there, you need to use a regular syringe without a needle. It is not worth measuring the volume of the medicine "by eye": it is fraught with the fact that you can "under-supply" or exceed the dosage;
Before giving the medicine, shake the bottle. This mainly concerns suspensions, because they are not homogeneous in their structure and at rest "separate" into medicinal powder (settles down) and water. After that, we collect the required amount of medicine in a syringe or spoon;
It is better to fix the child: the baby can be swaddled and held, as during feeding, by slightly raising the head, and the older baby can be sat down on the lap of one of the adults and ask the adult to hold him. To prevent the baby from getting dirty, you can tie a napkin to him.
The matter is small - the baby must drink the medicine:
- From a spoon: With a spoon, you need to slightly bend the baby's lower sponge and, after waiting for the baby to open his mouth, pour the contents into him. This can happen at once or in several steps. It is impossible to completely thrust a spoonful of medicine into the baby's mouth: this can injure the oral mucosa and cause a violent protest in the child;
- From a pipette: This is a "baby" way for children up to six months. The medicine is drawn into a pipette and dripped into the baby's mouth in several passes. Children who have already developed teeth may accidentally gnaw a glass pipette (for example, if their jaws are closed in a fit of resistance), so this method is not suitable for them;
- From a syringe: either a medical syringe without a needle or the syringe that came with the medicine will do. The syringe should be inserted closer to the corner of the mouth, with an emphasis on the lower lip. Inject the medicine slowly so that the baby has time to swallow. You can not pour syrup or suspension directly into the throat: the medicine should, as it were, flow down the inside of the cheek;
- Using a dummy: either the pacifier is dipped in the medicine and given to the baby, or it is filled with medicine (you can make a hole in the nipple and insert a pipette with the medicine there. See the picture below). In the first case, you need to dip the pacifier and let the child lick it until all the required amount of medicine is taken.

Clickable pictures:

What else parents need to know

Bitter medicine (for example, an antibiotic in the form of a suspension) is best infused closer to the root of the tongue. Firstly, there are fewer taste buds and the child will feel less bitterness, and secondly, irritation of the root of the tongue causes a swallowing reflex, and even if the baby rebel, he will swallow the drug reflexively.
It is better not to dilute the medicine with water, milk, juice or fruit drink in order to improve its taste. It is much more difficult for a child to drink a large volume of liquid, especially if the unpleasant taste of the medicine joins the taste of the drink. As a result, the body will not receive the required dose of the drug.
Some medications can have a negative effect on tooth enamel and leave a bad taste in the mouth., therefore, after taking a syrup or suspension, you need to brush your baby's teeth or wipe the gums with a napkin (how to clean teeth).

How to give pills or capsules to your child

Most of the medicines given to children are in a convenient syrup or suspension form, but sometimes you have to treat the child with tablets or capsules. It is more difficult, but if you do everything according to the rules, it is quite doable.

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Specify that the medicine is really legal for the child by age, and is also compatible with his diet and other medicines.
Calculate how much of the tablet you will need to give your child. The instructions always indicate how many mg of active ingredient one tablet or capsule contains, therefore, following the doctor's prescriptions, determine whether you will need to divide the tablet into 2 or 4 parts, or give a whole one. If you need to divide, the tablet can be cut with a knife and take the desired part, or grind into powder and divide it into parts. By the way, it is most convenient to crush the tablets into powder between two spoons: put a tablet in one, and put the other spoon in the first directly on the tablet and rub gently. With pills, everything is easier: you need to open it and pour out the contents.
We dilute the required volume of powder with a liquid and give it in any way that you can give a suspension. To dilute the powder, you must use the liquid that is indicated in the instructions. Most often it is water or milk (if possible).

Some tips for pill treatment

Do not dilute the crushed tablet with a large amount of liquid to give from the bottle. As with the suspension, the tablet tastes unpleasant, so it is easier to give your child a teaspoon of the bitter solution than 100 ml of an unpalatable drink. In addition, it is not always possible to crush the pill so finely that all its particles pass through the opening of the nipple;
Do not add medicine to mashed potatoes or other foods: if the pill tastes bitter, the child will not realize that the food has become bitter from it, and may begin to refuse food;
If the drug has analogues in other dosage forms, except for tablets (suppositories, suspensions), it is better to use them;
Almost all babies do not like to drink medicine, so they can scream, dodge, close their mouths, and spit out the drug. Mom needs to stay calm, confident and persistent in her actions. Yelling at the child at this moment is not worth it: this will only aggravate the stress and set the baby in a negative mood in relation to any manipulations and procedures. Also, do not roughly push a spoon or syringe into the baby's mouth or pinch his nose so that the child opens his mouth. Instead, apply light pressure to your cheeks;
You can try to distract the child from unpleasant sensations with a toy, song or cartoon;
Always praise your baby for taking the medicine and explain that this is helping the treatment and will soon be completely healthy.

How to give a baby a bitter pill? Here's what moms write on the forums:
Julius Mamius: I spread it on a spoon with some water and deep into the neck and immediately titrate differently.
KiraPlastinina: we injected with a syringe from nurofen, disgusting, the poor little frowns ... but what to do.
Elena Eliseeva:Yes, I agree, it is very convenient to inject any medicine with a syringe. Bitter is better to pour not on the tongue, but on the cheek. So in the mouth less bitterness remains, I tried it on myself.
Chamomile: we swaddled tightly, took the medicine into a nurofen syringe, held our cheeks so that the child could not snort, spit, poured in. The syringe was put by the cheek, farther away - not into the throat, but between the cheek and the gum. There was no gag reflex - I had to swallow.
Frosina's Mom:This is how I give my baby: I dilute any medicine in a tablespoon with my milk (you can suck it into a syringe from Panadol, etc.), if there are no assistants - swaddle, open your jaws (press on your cheekbones), pour in, pinch your nose and! Right away! chest or bottle (what have you got there?). Doesn't have time to wake up
Maria 0808:We were prescribed diacarb, I pushed it into powder, the necessary part on the nipple / finger and in the child's mouth, smeared the tongue on the cheeks, frowned, but licked it off.

How to drink the medicine correctly

To "bring down" the unpleasant aftertaste from the medicine, the parents immediately give the child a drink after it. This should be done taking into account the compatibility of drugs with some beverages.

Antibiotics should not be taken with milk: milk disrupts the structure of the drug and it is almost not absorbed by the body;
It is impossible to drink tea with medicine because of the tannin and caffeine it contains. tannin reduces the effectiveness of many drugs, and caffeine is not compatible with sedatives, since it has the opposite, stimulating effect;
Aspirin is not washed down with milk, since milk, like alkali, completely neutralizes it;
Antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and sedatives should not be taken with juices, since the citrates they contain neutralize the effects of these drugs. In particular, aspirin should not be taken with citrus juices, and grapefruit and cranberry juices are incompatible with almost all medications.

The baby's health is the most precious thing, although the children themselves do not like to be treated. Taking medication correctly in the form of tablets or suspensions will relieve the whole family of stress and help keep the child calm about various medical procedures.

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