This post is sponsored by FLAVORx. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When your little one isn’t feeling well it can be so stressful! Add in trying to give your kiddos medicine that they really need and refuse to take and it can feel so incredibly frustrating and defeating. I remember when my youngest was a toddler and suffering from a terrible ear infection and needed an antibiotic, but he straight up refused to take it. While I felt the frustration creeping in, I was able to look back on my years working as a pharmacy technician and all the tips and tools that the pharmacist would share with customers to help them deal with stubborn kiddos that would refuse to take their medication.

When a child has trouble taking liquid medicines it can be difficult at times leading to tears, tantrums and longer illness if you can’t get them to take it. Whether it’s for an acute illness or a medication that needs to be taken daily, there are steps you can take to make the process both easier for you and your child. If you’re wondering “how to get my child to take medicine”, these tips are for you!

8 Ways To Help Your Child Take Medicine

Have a Positive Attitude

As a parent or guardian, we have to set the tone when it comes to taking medication. Children take the cue from their parents’ emotions on many things so even if you’re feeling frustrated, try to lasso in your temper. I find that the more frustrated I get about it, the more my own kids act out.

Improve the Flavor with FLAVORx

Here’s the thing: some medications truly do taste terrible and are often one of my main reasons that children refuse to take medication. The good news is that there is a solution to help with yucky tasting medication: FLAVORx. FLAVORx makes the medicine-time experience better for both kids and parents by letting kids choose how they want their medicine to taste at the pharmacy. When I worked in pharmacy, we’d often recommend parents use FLAVORx to make giving medicine to their kids easier with less fighting and hassle. With FLAVORx, kids can pick their favorite flavor to help make their medicine taste better. When I pick up my kids prescriptions at CVS Pharmacy, I always request to use FLAVORx to make them taste better. It’s worth the extra step to make medicine-time easier, plus they love getting to choose the flavor!

Flavors are sugar-free, gluten-free, dye-free and casein-free to allow more families to be able to use it. With over 16 flavor options that can be used with hundreds of drugs, there is an option for even the pickiest kid! FLAVORx is a safe, effective and no-stress way for parents to make medicine-time fun more fun for kids while taking away the stress of giving yucky tasting medicine too!

Talk It Through

Talk to your child and find out what it is that is causing them to not want to take it and go from there to find a solution to make it better. Emphasize why they need to take the medication and assure them that it’s not a punishment. Be calm and firm, but understanding as well. You’re on a team so work together to find a solution as best as you can.

Give Them Choices

Empower children to take ownership by allowing them to make choices. Whether that means allowing them to choose a FLAVORx flavor, how to take it (spoon, dosing cup, syringe, etc) or where to take it (on your lap, in bed, couch). Sometimes just giving them a bit of control of the situation can diffuse the frustration and fight.

Fool The Tongue

When giving medicine, you can fool the tongue with a few tips! Before giving medicine, children can have a popsicle or suck on ice cubes. The coolness essentially numbs the tongue so that the taste is not so strong. You can also use something extra sweet to wash the taste away (a spoonful of honey or chocolate sauce works) after taking the medication. Many taste buds are in the back of the mouth, so when giving medicine, use a syringe to squirt it in the side of their mouth to lessen the taste.

Role Play

Role play is especially great for little ones. Allow them to pretend to give medication to their dolls or stuffed animals to make it more fun. The goal is to make medicine-time something fun and not something that they dread.

Make It A Routine

This is a great tip for medicine that will be taken for a longer duration or daily. Make giving the medicine part of their routine and before something that they really love doing (playing outside, a favorite tv show, video game). The goal is for them to have something positive to look forward to after taking their medication.

Reward Them

Sometimes bribery works! Whether you set up a star chart for a visual reminder or agree to let them choose a new small toy if they take their medicine all week, tactile rewards can work wonders with kids.

 

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