Giving Medicines
“Give him one dropperful of Tylenol,” or, “Give him one teaspoon of antibiotic,” your doctor says. You dutifully fill the dropper or syringe up to the correct line, put it in your baby's mouth, and squirt it in. It immediately comes dribbling back out, at which point you madly try to shovel it back in with your finger. Giving a baby medicine is not intuitive. If you're lucky, your baby will like the taste and lap it up — but don't count on it.
Here are some strategies that may work:
This method requires two adults. One adult sits on the floor, leaning against a wall, with her legs straight out in front of her. Another adult lays the baby on the first adult's legs, so his head is slightly higher than his body (which happens naturally since your thighs are fatter than your ankles), and the baby's feet point toward the adult's feet. The first adult then lifts the baby's arms above the baby's head; this keeps his hands from knocking the medicine away and opens up his throat. The second adult slips the dropper or syringe into the side of the baby's mouth, between his cheek and where his molars will eventually appear, squirts in just a few drops of medicine, then a few more, and then a few more until the dropper is empty. It doesn't matter if the baby's mouth is shut or if he's crying; the medicine will dribble down his throat.
Another method is the cheek pocket. Use a finger to pull out a corner of your baby's mouth to make a pocket in his cheek, and drop the medicine into the pocket a little at a time. Keep the pocket open until all the medicine has been swallowed.
Distractions can help make the medicine go down. If you can call on another adult or sibling to wave a toy or make faces at your baby, do so. Otherwise, dangle a toy from your mouth as you use both of your hands to give the medicine.
What you don't want to do is try to hide your baby's medicine in a bottle or in food. It still won't taste great, and if your baby doesn't finish the juice or food you'll have no idea how much medicine he consumed.
If giving your baby medicine orally is always a struggle, ask your drugstore for acetaminophen suppositories. The dosage, in milligrams, is the same as that for oral medication, but is less preferable than the oral form because the amount that is absorbed can vary.
