How to Trick Child Into Taking Medicine

While no parent ever wants to lie to her child, there may be times you have to get a bit creative in order to get your little one to take the medicine that she needs. Young children may not fully understand why taking medicine is so important and they may be afraid to take it if it tastes bad. It's a struggle that nearly every parent is faced with at one time or another.

Instructions

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      Go into the situation with a bright, happy attitude. Your tone may affect how your younger child reacts to taking her medicine, notes Keepkidshealthy.com.

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      Prepare your child for taking her medicine by honestly explaining to her what the medicine is and why it's important that she take it, suggests Seattle Children's Hospital. Use simple language that she'll understand while telling her what the medicine is called and how she is going to take it, whether it's a chewable tablet, liquid medication or a pill she swallows.

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      Give your child some control over the situation so she feels like she has a say in what's happening to her. Offer her choices such as deciding to take her medicine before or after getting dressed, or what kind of juice to drink after taking the medicine, suggests PBS Parents. Let her practice giving her doll some pretend medicine and ask her to help you get the medicine ready when it's time for her to take it. For example, allow her to pour it into the dosage cup.

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      Ask your older child's doctor to prescribe a pill or capsule, if your child can swallow them, to avoid struggles with liquids or chewables that may taste bad. Larger pills can often be split into quarters or halves to make them easier to swallow, notes Seattle Children's Hospital.

    • 5

      Ask your pharmacist to flavor your child's liquid medication when you pick it up. Many pharmacies offer flavor choices for children's liquid medicine.

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      Get creative when it comes time to administer medicine. For example, tell your child a story about her favorite character from a cartoon or fairy tale, about how this character was sick and her mommy was sad because she wouldn't take her medicine to get better. Continue telling her how much the character's mommy loved her and wanted her to not be sick anymore, so the character decided to be a good girl and take her medicine. Then, explain how this character went on to do great things, while living a happy and healthy life.

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      Trick your child if all else fails by disguising her medication. Ask your pharmacist if your child's pills can be crushed and mixed with other foods. If you get the go ahead, crush the pill with two spoons and mix it with something that will cover the taste of the pill such as strawberry syrup, pancake syrup or a sweetened drink powder, advises Seattle Children's Hospital. If you can't do this, dip a spoon into applesauce, put the pill into the applesauce and feed it to your child. When she swallows the applesauce, she'll swallow the pill along with it. Ask if liquid medications can be mixed with small amounts of sweetened drinks or yogurt to disguise them and cover the flavor.

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