A Spoonful of Sugar...

I think Mary Poppins had it right. A spoonful of sugar probably would help the medicine go down. Too bad we never thought to try that with Carter. Of course, he probably wouldn't have trusted us that it was actually sugar, not medicine.

Since day one (practically), he has been the anti-Medicine Man. When he was a toddler and would get ear infection, we had a devil of a time giving him his amoxicillin. The pink stuff would be everywhere. On his clothes, our clothes, his bib. He just refused to swallow it! Finally we resorted to holding him down. One of us would hold his arms and legs still on the diaper changing table or floor (or wherever we caught him) and the other, armed with the eyedropper, would plug his nose so he'd have to swallow it. I know it sounds cruel, but trust me, it was for his own good.

He still hasn't outgrown it but has been willing to drink his "shots" of Tylenol, etc., if the flavoring is OK. He wastes no time gagging and spitting it out if it isn't. Most times, he'd rather suffer through the sickness than take the medicine.

Thankfully, he's rarely sick. I don't know if it has helped or not, but he does like taking a daily vitamin. Oh not in the pill form -- they invented gummy vitamins for kids! Last week though, since he's 12 now, Carter decided he wanted to try the "teen boy" multi-vitamin. I said, "OK, but this only comes as a pill." He responds, "That's fine, Mom. I think I can do it."

So I buy the bottle and, unfortunately, they are "horse pills." You know what I'm talking about if you take a daily vitamin or calcium supplements. They are big pills! So of course Carter tries for an hour and can't swallow one. I cut it in half and he still can't do it. We sort of gave up on it. Or so I thought.

Yesterday, he started practicing with M&M's. The unfortunate comparison is that M&M's will start dissolving right away AND they actually taste good when they do. But Carter managed to swallow one and felt empowered to take an ibuprofen (his first pill ever) for some soreness (I think Wii related) in his back and shoulders. It took a few tries, but he got that little pill down.

This morning he was up early and willing to try one of those teen boy horse pills -- if I cut it in half. So I cut it in half and had to leave for work. He called later and said he managed to swallow both halves, but then read the label that it should be taken with food. Even though he had finished cereal just 10 minutes before taking the vitamin, he had a granola bar. Then, he said, his stomach was upset so he took 2 Tums.

OK, so we've gone from the anti-Medicine Man to a Pill Junkie overnight!

I might need some sugar myself to get through this one!