How to give babies and toddlers medicine
When your baby isn’t feeling at their best, it’s tough for both of you. You worry when your baby isn’t well and don’t like to see them feeling miserable. Having to give your baby medicine can make things tricky too. Babies can be resistant to taking medicine even from syringes that are designed to make it easier to administer.
When your baby refuses to accept the medicine, it might only increase your worry. Your baby doesn’t understand that it will help them to feel better, and you can’t convince them to take the medicine. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do when giving your baby medicine to make it easier and get your baby back on the road to being their usual self. Here’s how to get babies to take medicine when they don’t feel well.
About Baby Medicine
Medicines for babies are often in liquid form to be given to them orally. Sometimes you might also be prescribed a suppository, which offers another way to give small babies medicine, or perhaps a topical medicine for their skin. There are various reasons you might need medicine for your baby, including fever or problems with teething. Calpol is one example of a common medicine given to babies. They have liquid medicines for babies as young as two months old, as well as nasal sprays and drops for congestion that can be used from birth.
Liquid medicines for babies usually come with a syringe plunger to give the medicine. You just use the syringe to draw the correct dosage into the syringe, then gently push down on the syringe to get the medicine into your baby’s mouth.
Difficulties Giving Medicine to Babies
Syringes that come with baby medicine are supposed to make it easier to give medicine to your baby. However, things aren’t exactly that simple. They don’t always help and can be fiddly and tricky to get your baby to accept. Even if you manage to safely get the medicine into your baby’s mouth, there’s every chance that they will spit it back out again. You could try again, but you might worry about giving your baby too much if they already swallowed part of the dose.
Oral syringes are safe to use and help you to measure out the right dose of medicine for your baby. They do require you to use them in the right way, though, and your baby needs to accept having the syringe in their mouth. You need to be able to place the tip of the oral syringe into your baby’s mouth and gently release a small amount of medicine at a time, allowing your baby to swallow in between. This means your baby needs to hold still and be happy with having the syringe in their mouth. If your baby will not take medicine from an oral syringe, there are other options that can help to make it easier.
How to Give a Baby Medicine
Giving oral medicine to a baby can be a little tricky. A lot of babies won’t even take bottles, so you can find that your baby will not take medicine from an oral syringe. But, although it can be a little difficult, there are some tips and tricks that can help. When an oral syringe isn’t working out for you, other solutions are available.
If you need some help giving medicine to your baby over 3 months old, the Safe and Sound Health Baby Medicine Dispenser makes the job simple. The dispenser is designed to give your baby medicine in a safe and soothing way. Shaped like a dummy, it allows your baby to suck on the teat and take in the medicine. You can be sure your baby is getting the full dose that they need when the medicine passes through the soother and into your baby’s mouth.
As your baby sucks on the teat of the medicine dispenser, you can measure out a dose of the medicine and add it to the medicine chamber, pulling back its plunger beforehand. After closing the chamber, simply gently depress the plunger as your baby sucks the soother to administer the medicine. The medicine dispenser contains no BPA or latex and it’s suitable for babies over 3 months old. You can make sure you give the full dosage of medicine required to help your baby feel better so you soon have a happy and relaxed infant again.
Try our Baby Medicine Dispenser next time your baby needs liquid medicine. It’s designed to take the stress out of giving medicine to your baby.
