To treat Lily's pneumonia the doctor put Lily on 10 days of an antibiotic called Biaxin. To put it mildly we've learned Lily is not a big fan of taking medicine. Our normal, happy, easy going, little sweetie turns into a holy terror when she sees the medicine bottle!! The fact that Biaxin is nasty, bitter, grainy, yuck with a terrible after taste certainly doesn't help!
Getting Lily to take the first dose was not fun! After that experience I did a little research on how to get your toddler to take medicine (short of using a straight jacket!) and came across a flavoring that can be added to liquid medicine (for a nominal cost) to make it taste better. There is a huge list of flavors you can choose from. Think the list of flavors at a snowball stand...and you've got the picture!
I'm not a big fan of giving Lily artificial flavors/dyes...but at the same time I'm not a big fan of waging a battle every time Lily needs a dose of medicine. So, we decided to flavor the medicine with bubble gum flavoring.
We explained to Lily how much better the second dose would taste. Turns out all the flavoring did was turn the Biaxin into Bazooka flavored nasty, bitter, grainy, yuck with a terrible after taste! You should have seen the look on Lily's face. She looked so betrayed. It broke my heart.
The third dose didn't go any better and to put it mildly the fourth dose was a NIGHTMARE! Lily was HYSTERICAL and Tony and I weren't much better. We promised Lily fig newtons and ice chips after she took her medicine. They are two of Lily's absolute favorite things...but that wasn't nearly enough! The drama went on for more than 2 hours. Not sure if that is more a testament to my ineffective parenting or to Lily's amazing will power...or should I say won't power!
Honestly, I thought we were going to have to get a straight jacket...for all 3 of us! Then suddenly it occurred to me...we have M & M's left over from Halloween in the storage room. I asked Tony to go downstairs and get a pack of them. Lily had never had an M & M...but she took one smell and was hooked! I told Lily if she took her medicine she could pick out 3 M & M's. She opened her mouth and swallowed that vile stuff like a little bird. I don't want to think what she would do for 4 M & M's!
I'm sure the purist out there would tell me you shouldn't bribe your kids with food...much less candy. I agree. However, there is just no way we could go through this struggle for 16 more doses. Anyway, is it just me or does it seem like if we can land a man on the moon we should be able to invent a liquid antibiotic that doesn't taste so terrible??
The good news is...now, when we are about to give Lily a dose of medicine we have her pick out 3 M & M's (yes, even for the morning dose) and away we go. No drama, no hysteria, and she's getting the medicine she needs! I'd say that's a win-win.
You two have known about these M&M's things all along??
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