Bad Ear! No Biscuit!

[billroper]

Last night, I was up late working on the schedule for Capricon when I heard Katie moaning in her room. I thought she had had a nightmare, but it turned out she had acquired her first serious earache. I had to wake daisy_knotwise to find out where the children's ibuprofen suspension was. I might as well not have bothered, because Katie refused to take it, saying it was "Yucky!"

I would have thought that the earache would have been yuckier. *sigh* However, the half hour of fighting and shouting that ensued seems to have relieved some of the pressure as she was able to go back to sleep subsequently. Today, the earache seems to have subsided.

Which is good.

She would not take it from a cup.
She would not take it from a syringe.
So Mom and Dad are still both up
And all that we can do is cringe.

Comments

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

As an adult who can't swallow pills, man, I have to agree, that stuff is gross. The Advil brand fruit flavoured chewables are probably the tastiest way to have ibuprofen, although every kid and their unique snowflake tastebuds have a different opinion. Any kind of ibuprofen has a weird almost spicy taste that's hard to cover up with a sweet flavour, and kids' sensitive tastebuds twig to it more than adults do. (Now a cola flavour covers it up beautifully, disguising the spice as fizz, but no one makes a commercial version of it that way. One day I'll make my fortune on sodapop painkillers...) So you might have luck with acetaminophen liquid or chewables even if ibuprofen is always a big fight. Tylenol brand meltaways tastes better than all the generic brands I've tried - something about their formulation covers up the bitterness better. (Sadly! I spend so much money on brand name chewables. A grown-up can go through a couple of bottles of that stuff for a single headache...)

I'm glad she's feeling better! I'm typing this with a squalling infant in my lap, and ohhhh do I feel for you in the fighting and shouting department.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Back before there was Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen, my mom used to mash St.Joseph Chewable Baby Aspirins between two spoons and stir the crumbs into a small cup of orange juice.

Tunafish works for cats when I had to give THEM something like that.

Just throwing out ideas.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

My mom used to cut a grownup asprin in half and crush it with the back of a spoon, then mix the crumbs into a spoonful of jam or honey.

Which may be why, when my little brother found himself with a free, unsupervised moment, he got into the honey jar instead of eating a whole bottle of children's aspirin.

He was as sticky as Pooh, but quite unharmed and no frantic call to poison control was necessary, though I understand he had to take a bath with all his clothes on before mom could get them off and put them in the wash.

Maybe ibuprofen could be handled the same way? Enough honey ought to cover up most tastes. I will experiment with it the next time I need an ibuprofen, if you want.

[daisy-knotwise.livejournal.com]

Oooo, Hunny!
Katie is such a Pooh fan that that might have extra appeal.

Thank you for the suggestion.
Also, thank you for the mental picture of your stickified brother. I needed a good chuckle this morning.

GHR

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) You're very welcome. I hope it works. I seem to recall fairly vigorous mashing was involved to break the pill up into the honey; mom used a sturdy cup and the back of a sturdy spoon and then fed it to us with the spoon.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

It sounds as though you need to come up with a threat that she will consider much, much yuckier than the ibuprofen.

[mbcrui.livejournal.com]

I hope you guys took her into the pediatrician to have that checked out. My boys suffered with ear aches most of their lives, and Pat has a probably-permanent hearing loss from them. My dad's ear drum was ruptured from an untreated ear infection and he couldn't hear from his left ear. They can be really bad.

As for the ibuprofen-- there are different flavors, maybe she'd like the bubble gum or grape or whichever you don't have... don't give her aspirin, Reyes Syndrome is very NOT GOOD. (My cousin had it when he was 4. Of the 10 children that had it that year that went to Motts Children's Hospital, he is the only survivor.)

[billroper]

It was only acute that night and seems to have gone away. We'll watch it carefully.

I think part of the problem is simply that she doesn't know how to pop her ears yet.

And, yes, aspirin is firmly on the "don't go there" list. We've tried her on two different flavors of ibuprofen so far with no luck. *sigh*

[mbcrui.livejournal.com]

Have you tried the chewables? My kids didn't like the liquids, but didn't have any trouble with the chewables.

[billroper]

We'd love to try the chewables, but chewable ibuprofen appears to be MIA currently due to a recall last year. There's dissolving acetaminophen, but I don't think that'll be a particular improvement.