Daughter Will Not Her Her Meds.

Make it positive, allow her to have some control and be honest. Acknowledge that it tastes gross - but there are ways to help make it less gross. Show her a medicine dropper that will help her get it to the back of her mouth. Allow her to put the dropped in her mouth towards the back. Let her choose which kind of treat she can have some when she takes her medicine without a struggle - m&m's or hershey kisses? Make a sticker chart - every time she takes her meds without a struggle she gets a sticker. After she fills up a row of boxes (a weeks) with stickers she gets a rewarded - a trip to the dollar store, special desert, trip to a favorie playground, party with best friend (chips & a cupcake) etc. Work with her to creat the rewards, to make the chart (a small calendar works).
Always reward the postivie behvior and ignore the negative.

Good luck mama!

Exaclty what NY Metro Mom said!

If that doesn't work, then you will have to hold her down, plug her nose and drop it in. You'll need help because preschoolers can be VERY strong when they want to be!

You don't say how old your daughter is. I was anemic and I had to take the medicine as well when I was in 1st grade. The liquid is a yellow color and it does taste gross. I plugged my nose and swallowed. Not taking it was not an option. If your daughter is older my comment would be "yep, now swallow".

When my son was a year old he had pneumonia and he had to take his medicine whether he liked it or not.
I had to hold him down, pry his mouth open and squirt it into his cheek a little at a time so he did not choke.
Once he had it down, he could have a drink to wash the taste from his mouth and we'd snuggle and calm down.
There's no negotiating this - she has to take her medicine.
Can she eat iron rich foods?
Time to serve up spinach and liver for supper!

I found this:

In general, your child should eat at least two or more iron-rich foods each day. Knowing which foods actually have iron in them can be confusing for parents though.
Iron-Rich Foods
Foods that are a good source of iron include:

liver
lean red meats, including beef, pork, lamb
seafood, such as oysters, clams, tuna, salmon, and shrimp, etc.
beans, including kidney, lima, navy, black, pinto, soy beans, and lentils
iron fortified whole grains, including cereals, breads, rice, and pasta
greens, including collard greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach, and turnip greens
tofu
vegetables, including broccoli, swiss chard, asparagus, parsley, watercress, brussel sprouts
chicken and turkey
blackstrap molasses
nuts
egg yolks
dried fruits, such as raisins, prunes, dates and apricots

How anemic is she? Is the supplement absolutely necessary (and for how long) or can you try diet first? I get anemic from time to time and have been able to manage it with diet. I've tried taking iron but the side effect of constipation is just not worth it to me.

If she is critically low and the only way to raise her iron is through the supplements, can you see if she can swallow a pill? One of my brothers learned to swallow pills at age 4 when he was on daily medication for a long time. Find out how long your doctor thinks she'll need to take the medicine before her levels are high enough to maintain with diet. Then just have her hold her nose and take the medicine (you can't taste what you can't smell) and then give her a treat afterward. I would also make a calendar based on how long she needs to take it. The on a day that she takes it without a fight she gets a green sticker, a day with some fussing is yellow and a nightmare day is red. If she gets a certain % of green stickers she'll get one reward at the end, a smaller reward for a % of yellow and maybe no reward if they're all red.

Hope that helps!

Liquid iron is the most disgusting horrible tasting thing I have ever put in my mouth.

You are just going to have to hold her down and do it. You are the mom and you know that she has to have this. You need to wrap her up in a blanket like a burrito then put one arm across her chest going up towards her head so you can hold her face still. Then use a dropper to put the liquid in her mouth. It helps if you have her head by a wall so you can use it like a second hand.

We often had to use a snot sucker to clean out my grandson's nose since he refused to blow. I have no problem doing this if it is for a worthy cause.

You are not being mean to her. If she had to have a shot to save her life but didn't want it you would have to hold her down and let them give it to her. Same applies here. She could get really sick from lack of iron. She is under a doc's care so that won't happen if you be the parent and just do the med.

Do not give her a choice. Hold her down and put it in the back of her throat or between her teeth and cheek.

Put tiny amounts of the liquid in there then coax her to swallow it. Stroke her Adams apple area to cause her to swallow. Blow in her mouth. You don't want her to choke on a bunch of it squirted in her mouth all at once but you don't want to prolong it either.

The first thing I think of is a good-tasting reward after the bad-tasting medicine. The reason I think of that is because my husband did exactly that when he was little, and says he got a lot of soft drinks that way!

Another idea is to call your doctor and ask if there is a brand that tastes better. Can't hurt to ask.

I hope you get this worked out, because your daughter needs to learn that there are some things she has to do whether she likes to do them or not.

I have never been one to try to "hide" medicine in other things. Personally, I think that sets a bad precedent. If my kiddo is taking meds, then they have to take them. Hiding it doesn't make it not happen, and it doesn't make it not taste bad, it just makes the food/drink taste bad WITH it. AND, if they don't finish the drink/food, you never know how much of the dose they actually ingested.

I just gave it to them straight. With a cup of water or something in their other hand waiting to wash down right behind it. It has always worked fine for my kids. Even my "picky eater" who will stand there for 5 minutes looking at the medicine first. She eventually screws up enough courage mentally to swallow it, and then drinks the water right after. :)

ETA: My kids always appreciated a bit of personal control, too. When they were old enough to do so without spilling, I let them hold the cup and drink it on THEIR terms. It makes a world of difference, or at least it did to my kids. We could stand there for 10 minutes if we had to, and they knew that, but it never took that long. Ever. They just needed to mentally accept that it was going to happen (without dramatics from me) and then they would take it. I did acknowledge "yeah, I know it tastes yucky" but I also always reminded them why they were taking it too "but it will make you get better faster" "your body needs it to be healthy" "this will help your body fight off the germs making you sick right now", etc.
Now they are old enough to swallow pills, lol, and they like taking their daily fish oil capsule. lol

We've never hidden medicine in food or drink because it doesn't work and it sends a bad message. We've always been told by whomever the doctor is to get the medicine into the child by whatever means necessary aside from sneaking it into something.

The girls are old enough now to understand that the medicine may taste nasty, but it will help them feel better once they finish all of it. If it's particularly disgusting in spite of now being in pill form, then get to wash it down with whatever liquid they like: milk, V-8, green tea, chai tea, lemon juice, fruit smoothie... whatever. Or they can swallow it down with water and then eat something delicious immediately after.

When they were smaller, and we used the liquids, I would sit on the floor on my yoga mat. I would sit on their arms as they laid down with their head facing up to me. With one hand I could hold the mouth open and put my finger in the back where there weren't any teeth and with the other hand drip in the medicine with the dropper on the side of the mouth so that they wouldn't choke on it. It didn't matter if they screamed, cried, kicked, whatever... that medicine got into them. They weren't traumatized. In fact, if they saw the medicine bottle and doser they would just lay down on the floor and wait for me to sit on them. :-) Right after, I always had something tasty to offer.

Ask the doc if there are better tasting options. My son doesn't like to take yucky stuff, but if I have something that tastes good for RIGHT after - I mean I'm holding it so he can get rid of the taste ASAP, it's easier.

Depending on her age, ask her to HELP you figure out how to help the medicine not taste yucky. Also, mine likes to understand the why of things - like why he has to take the medicine. Maybe helping her understand what her anemia is making her feel like, and the good stuff that will happen when she takes the medicine will help her see the reason beyond the "because the doctor told me to".

Around that age I told my kids you have to take this medicine and it can be the easy way or the hard way. I offered them the chance to take it on their own with water or milk to wash it down and sometimes a chance of a treat if they took it with no fight. Treats were a couple of M&M or chocolate chips. I still had to do it they hard way a few times with each kid but when they knew I would follow through the did cooperate most of the time. (The hard way was one parent holding the child and the other one giving the medicine with the baby medicine syringe. It was a miserable battle for all involved.)

Matters of health and safety are important enough to allow you to just "take over". She can take it on her own or you will get it into her by any means necessary, many of the moms had great suggestions below. The finger in the back of the mouth by the jaw works great, and even stroking their throat (like you would do for an animal) helps the swallowing reflex. She will either give in and take it herself when you show her how serious it is that she take it, or you will have to force it every time and just expect that's how it will go.

When it's this bad, i'd have to recommend candy( which i would normally never do). Find a candy they like, and only give it to them as a reward for taking their iron. Do not allow it at any other time, even Halloween. My daughter had to take an antibiotic she didnot like for 10 days for an infection - it was not an option not to take it. We did it the "hard way" the first time (one parent holding her the other getting in as much as we could with a syringe). The we explained that the "easy way" was to take the medicine herself out of the medicine cup and immediately be rewarded with one square of a hersheys chocolate bar to obliterate the taste of the medicine. It still took about half an hour of coaxing each time but she eventually did it each time on her own. She got chocolate 3x a day for 10 days but the benefit was worth it. Please be sure she eats plenty of high iron food like raisins as well. Note: Iron is constipating. Raisins as well as being high in iron can also help combat the constipation as well as prune juice. If it becomes a real big problem consult your dr about using Miralax. Good luck!

Is there a treat she really likes but doesn't get very often? Dum dum suckers are my secret weapon. It might help if she's able to control taking the medicine. Let her hold the cup if you're confident she won't spill it.

My son wouldn't take liquid meds either of certain types.

So he started swallowing pills around 2.5

He's 10 now... Docs still ask about 4x before Rx'ing pills for him, but he HATES liquid meds, despises chewables... And gulp gulp pills right down.

Not chewables... Real pills. For things that did t dose right and HAD to be liquid, input them in food he DIDN'T already eat (chocolate pudding, corn syrup n tang, 'dog food' (cereal, peanut butter, chocolate)... So he wouldn't know how it was SUPPOSED to taste.

Oh I'm so happy to see that I'm not the only one who advocates the 'hard way' to get it down if that becomes necessary. I know that it isn't a pleasant thought that you might have to actually 'manhandle' a child to get them to take their meds, but if the meds are important enough to their health, that may become necessary. I remember my parents having to do that with me sometimes, and though it wasn't pleasant for them or for me, I've not suffered any serious damage or trauma as a result. I've also had to do the same on several occasions with my own children, and even once with a grandchild. It isn't fun and you feel like the child will hate and resent you forever for it, but they really don't. Of course, the key is plenty of loving after the medicine goes down. AND whatever happened to that old adage of Mary Poppins? I haven't found the "spoonful of sugar" to be a sure remedy, sorry to say!

I still remember that medicine. (And I'm old enough to be her grandmother!) It even tasted awful in pill form! But I had to take it and I know you will find a way for her to take it, too.

You have received lots of great advice. I'd also like to suggest that you talk with your pharmacist. Pharmacists often have the most recent information on substitutions or methods that help. And most will call a pediatrician to discuss a possible change.

All my best.

The tongue holds the taste buds. If you can get her to hold her head back while you squeeze droppers full of the liquid down her throat avoiding the tongue, that may help. I'm also in agreement with getting something better tasting on her tongue as a chaser.

I would ask the doctor about what would be the best liquid or chaser because some thing taken with other things just make it not work the way it should.

Good luck and hang in there because it is for her own good.

My daughter was so bad about taking medicine, just couldn't do it. She refused pain meds when she had her tonsils and adenoids out. That is how much she couldn't stomach medicine. Life was good when she was able to swallow pills. Not sure how old your daughter is but if she is old enough for the pill version of iron you can help teach her to swallow pills by starting with mini m&ms.

Talk to the pediatrician about other options.
What about cutting the meds back to every other day and making sure she has iron rich food every day?
Cheerios 45% of daily (adult) iron
Total cereal 100%
However check with doctor as not all that iron will be absorbed and this article says calcium interferes with iron absorption
www.livestrong.com/article/241848-how-much-iron-is-in-tot...

Mymee,

I used to be anemic. I started on a jadegreenzymes drink and it helped me balance my system.It also helps with sugar balance, helps to alkaline the body, blood builder and so much more.

It is a food and I I started my granddaughter on it when she was 2 days old. She loves it.
Healthy child healthy world is having Sept as healthy child month and we are having some parties to share health and wellness.
If you want more info let me know.
Get your baby on a natural wellness path it will prevent many challenges.
Have a good weekend.
N. Marie