Mom Tested Ideas for Giving Medication

I guess infants and children without reflux really do love cherry, grape, bubble gum and berry flavored medication. When the label says, “Kid Tested and Approved”, I always think to myself, “Yeah, tested on non refluxers of course!” Could you imagine what would happen if the drug manufacturers invited a room full of refluxers to test their medication flavors? There would be puckered lips and grimaces all around! My refluxers have a flavor acceptance scale with only two ratings: barely tolerable and really awful. I think we have tried just about every flavor and type of medication from liquid, chewable, melt in the mouth, gummy and even chewing gum vitamins.

It isn’t the fault of the drug manufacturers that refluxers often dislike medication. Whether it is a candy bar or a chewable vitamin tablet, when mixed with stomach acid, it just tastes bad. My kids manage to urp and burp up food and medication so they taste it twice. I feel bad for them.

There are some ways to help your baby or child manage medication whether it is an over the counter pain reliever, vitamin or prescription reflux medication.

For babies:

• Use a small medication syringe to give liquid medication. Gently place the syringe along the gum line to the back of the mouth.
• Avoid placing medication on the tongue where there are more taste buds.
• Ask the doctor if it is possible to use a dissolving tablet or powder mixture.
• Ask the pharmacist about flavoring.

• Set up a routine so medication time is predictable.
• Use special medication syringes and spoons.
• Avoid using eating utensils to give medications.
• Avoid hiding medication in food. Your child may notice and stop eating a previously tolerated food or only eat a small amount of the food and get less than a full dose of medication.
• Use a reward system for taking medication such as a sticker chart.

• Try different types of medication: liquid, chewable, pill and see if one is more accepted.
• Let your child have some control over the medication such as marking a calendar to keep track of doses or measuring medication (it is still important to supervise medication).
• Talk to the pharmacist about different ways to take medication (for example, sprinkling an opened capsule of a PPI medication on apple sauce or compounding into a liquid).