If you have seen Mary Poppins, you know that people have been using tricks to get children to take medicine for decades. While a “spoonful of sugar” isn’t the usual method used today, there are other ways to get your child to take his or her medicine, especially when it doesn’t taste very good.
If it tastes bad, allow your child to eat half a popsicle first, with promises of the second half when the medicine is taken. The frozen treat will also freeze the taste buds, and your child will not be able to taste the medicine very well, if at all.
Have a banana on hand if they need to swallow a pill. If it gets “stuck”, the mushy-ness of the banana will grab the pill on the way down. This works much better than a drink!
Never ever refer to medicine as “candy” or a “treat”. Overdoses in children have happened because they end up finding out how to access (kids can be resourceful when it comes to sneaking candy) to the medication and eat multiple doses of it thinking it is candy. Always keep medicine in a child safety proofed container and always out of a child’s reach.
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