Stir it into some pudding, yogurt or a small smoothie

put it on a bit of toast and cover with jam

Good luck

Ellie

Teach her to swallow pills without biting and chewing them. My GD was 5 and had had enough of liquid medicine tastes. She just couldn't do it any more. Her mom and I tried the medicine and it was just awful tasting even with flavoring.

I asked her how many M&Ms she could swallow without biting and chewing them. She thought a moment and said "Oh, probably about 6". Her mom had some so we sat with GD while she tried swallowing them whole. It was a lot of fun, actually. We had to talk her through it (and laughed a lot) because my DIL and I swallowed differently. GD kept trying until she finally got it. She was so proud! Now she can take medicine in pill form and doesn't have to taste it.

Cheerios, Skittles, SweetTarts, M&Ms...anything like that should work.

Leslie/KS

I've had to hold my own kids down and force it in. It may take more than one person. If you put the medicine in a syringe, you can can control the amount you dispense at one time. Instead of just squirting it in her mouth, squirt a bit at a time between the mouth and the teeth. Sh won't be able to have enough in her mouth to spit out everything. Have something on hand for her to drink afterwards so it all washes down.

You could also call the doctor and see if she can get a shot instead of taking the medicine.

Try mixing it with either 1/3 cup Pepsi (what 4 y.o. wouldn't like that!) or with some straight Hersheys syrup.

There was never a food I could stir it into that would work for my kids. They would eat a couple bites, but not enough to take the whole dose, before the taste of the med bothered them again.

Sometimes it worked to give them a freezer pop or popsicle before and after, numbed the taste buds and coated their mouth with a sweet flavor.

I'd try to make a game of it, or to give them the syringe to give them some control, tell them to plug their nose. It would work sometimes, but wouldn't last.

Mostly I'd just have to get really tough, make sure they had a drink to wash it down, not let them have any fun until they took it, and finally reward them well for the awful deed.

My youngest is ornery, he fights everything. And #2 is just fussy about *everything* he puts in his mouth, so he would fight me when he was younger. The others were more coopertive.

I would do what Stephanie does--have them hold something ice cold in their mouths to deaden the taste buds. And I *always* have a "chaser" of water or soda ready before they even start.

And then, threats. You sit in this chair, and you can't get up until you take it. Once, you *do* take it, you can have X.

And even, "You see these Legos? If you don't take your medicine, I'm going down to the basement (for non-apartment dwellers that would be "out to the garage") and throwing them in the garbage"

Then, once they're bawling because I threw their toy out, and they take it, I'll go get the stuff back. Or, leave it in the garbage if I think I need them to REALLY learn to take a medicine.

And I was always sympathetic about how it tastes--I know it's yucky, grownups hate it too, but we all have to put up with it. I will do these "X" things to try to make it easier on you, but not taking it is not an option. Then, if they balked, out comes the garbage can.

And I agree w/ the idea of training kids to swallow pills without biting. (my kids did this to themselves, using gummy bears, which get slippery when wet and slide down more easily).

That's really useful. (and hey, the motivation of not having to taste as many icky medicines might be enough)

My DGS was about 10 and I still had to crush up pills for him disolve them in Sprite have a cup of Sprite right in my hand so he could chug it as soon as he took the crushed up mushy pill~~he was horrible, I had to do this 3X's while at the San Deigo Zoo:(

My boys have been taking pills since they were 3. My oldest had so many ear infections, I quit counting after 58. Soooooo, get the doctor to give you samples of antibiotics or other meds in capsule form to try. Have your child fill their mouth with whatever they are swallowing it with. Make sure the lips are wet. Slip the capsule between the lips, have them bend over at the waist and swallow. Capsules float! They float to the back of the throat and swallow really easy. After they accomplished that, any other pill was easy to take.

Good luck...believe me...I have been there.

You may check into if they have a chewable form of the medicine. Those usually taste better than the liquid.

I found it also helped if I let the kids take their time and feed themselves. They like the control of it and for some reason it really did seem to help and was less stressful than me trying to feed it to them. Try letting her feed himself, you may notice a big difference. Of course have a drink waiting for her when she's done.

Good luck.

My daughter was very hard to give medicine to because most is flavored sweet and she never ate sweets, and so she wouldn't take it.

This is what I did, starting when she was 18 mo. old. I told her she had to take it and could have something to wash it down after she did. But, I was going to hold her until she took it. That's what I did. She tried to get down a couple of times and I said, No, not until you take your medicine.

I kept telling her I would give her something to wash the taste out of her mouth, but she had to take the medicine or I would hold her forever.

I was just firm about it and in about 5 minutes or less, she took it.

I'm impressed with all of you that taught your children young to swallow pills. I didn't have a problem with the boys, but DD who is 13 still won't do it, and she also hates swallowing liquid meds.

Sheryl

At 4 years of age she is old enough to be taught that medicine is important to take and she needs to take it without fighting. You are the boss, end of the discussion. Get her to swollow it quickly and have a nice tasting liquid chaser to have afterwards. You need to be in control here.

Said in my best pediatric nurse voice.

After a while you just give up on all those nice, sweet methods. I told a GD that if she didn't take her medicine we'd have to go to the doc's office and the nurse could give her a shot. Mean, but it worked. Who wants a shot?

We had and still have the best family doctor in the world. I had the same problem, no way no how would my DS take medicine. Thank goodness he was seldom sick, one time when he was we go to the doc and I told him I couldn't get DS to take medicine even with force, if we held him down and gave it to him, he would gag until he threw it up. Well the doctor looked at him and said now you know you have to take your medicine to get better and so we are going to put your medicine in syringes and when you are done taking these you should be well. I got the perscription filled, took it back to the docs office and he filled 12 syringes up and put them in a baggie and we took them home and my DS never balked, took every one of them no problem. After that if he just had a fever or whatever, if it was something that didn't require a visit to the Doc, I would just fill up the syringes myself and tell him I had stopped at Dr. Larry's office and he had sent some medicine home for him. Never had another problem.

I appreciate the suggestions, some will work another time. I tried by force which was just wasting the medicine.

well, after much frustration, i called my oldest DD. She and her boyfriend/fiance came over. Zack took over. he filled another syringe with milk since the anitbiotics are white. He said he'd take it first, then she could. He had a drink for her to take afterward. He said he;d count down 3,2,1 squirt and she could squirt it in her mouth after he took his.

Well, I think Tay thinks she's going to marry Zack, not her aunt. Now, she's not even waiting to finish the countdown before she squirts it in her mouth.

I should have thought of Zack earlier! She's never given me a problem before taking medicine before.

I'll start practicing with candy so she can learn to swallow pills.

Thanks again for your help.

When my kids were little, they hated taking any medicine. The pediatrician suggested I mix it in applesauce. It worked for us, that was 18 years ago.

Funny you should mention applesauce. I used to give my kids medicines in applesause and now DD cannot eat chunky applesauce at all.
She says she keeps waiting for the "bad" part. She will be 42 next month.
I think giving meds to kids is an individual child/parent thing but love Marilyn C.'s method best.
(I am making applesauce right now.....and will put it thru the food mill so there will be no chunks.)