A spoonful of medicine... and an allergic reaction!!

What a fortnight it's been!!

Yes, that's right a fortnight!! That's more or less how long 'Baby' has been ill. 

During this time, we have been attempting to clear and complete a sale on our old flat. It's not been easy with a small child who should be at school, is decidedly unwell, is in excruciating pain and is refusing to take her medicine!!

According to Mary Poppins, 

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down...

Hmm! Practically perfect in every way, Mary Poppins may be, but I beg to differ!!

Our attempts to get 'Baby' to take any spoonful of medicine have been met with the kinds of shrieks and howls that might well cause any well-meaning neighbour to ring the police, in order to prevent a murder being committed. 

We needed to give her Nurofen to take her fever down (and Calpol at times too) as well as antibiotics and that's where the fun began!

That was when it became apparent that 'Baby' was reacting to her Penicillin.

When the Doctor first prescribed antibiotics, I was hoping they wouldn't be needed! After all I was still digesting the news on the BBC Horizon programme the other week - about how early use of antibiotics might contribute to developing food allergies.

However, the ear infection clearly wasn't going to go away, so reluctantly we forced (yes forced) some into our little one (some came back out again). When small red spots appeared on her cheek, an hour or so after the first dose, I wasn't too concerned. There was a red patch on her cheek that tends to appear when her body is fighting something off, so I just assumed the virus that she was also battling was entering another phase.

Her heavy eyes and doziness I just put down to her needing to catch up on the sleep she had missed due to unsettled nights, her aching limbs to the virus...

Until she had her next (hard fought) dose!!

The rash spread  quickly over her entire trunk, the heavy eyes and doziness returned, her face and lips went puffy. That's when we became alarmed and started Googling and came to the conclusion that it was either the virus or a reaction. Thing is, it couldn't be a reaction to milk - there was none in the medicine (yes, you do need to check medicines as well), our suspicion was the penicillin!

As she wasn't wheezing, we let her sleep... until the morning. 

It was a Saturday, and we were miles from home.

Despite the urgent need to shift our possessions from our old flat, The Hub had to whisk 'Baby' off to an out-of-hours appointment and the allergic reaction was confirmed. 

No more penicillin, for 'Baby!'

The good thing was that the Doctors were surprised that, given her age, this was her first experience of antibiotics. The bad thing was that the replacement medicine had it's problems too! It gave her a sore mouth and she couldn't get it down.

The second lot of antibiotics also went to waste!

The next out-of-hours Doctor was quite stern. 'Baby' HAD to have antibiotics to get well. The new medicine HAD to work. Well, I knew that, but the problem was how to get her to accept it!!

It tasted awful!

'Baby' was having none of it!

She squealed the house down, fought like crazy, clenched her teeth, covered her mouth with her hand and refused every attempt to take a spoon. NO bribe was sufficient - however much she wanted the reward, once faced with the medicine, all bets were off! There was no point injecting it with a syringe - it just came back out again! 

Reasoning, even the pain from her ear... nothing would move 'Baby' to accept the medicine.

Neither would giving it to her in lots of tiny drops washed down each time by water (which was how we persuaded her to take the Nurofen).

The Hub and I were desperate!! We felt scarred by the fight over the medicine!! No decent parent wants to cause their child such awful distress!!

Finally, we opted for mixing the medicine with something else. First her soya milk, which didn't work, then some chocolate Koko! Although it still wasn't palatable, this worked... in combination with threats of the syringe, and a fair bit of bribery (she now has quite a collection of Shopkins - don't ask) and sometimes even a spoonful of ice cream, or a bite of something sweet to follow each sip!!!

Chocolate milk works better than sugar!

But it worked!

Not a spoonful of sugar, but a CUPFUL of Koko helps the medicine go down, the medicine go down, the medicine go down...  (sing along now) 

Yes, yes, I may well have cracked, but after the fortnight I've had, who could blame me??

Now I'm after some decent dairy free probiotics - after all, we've got to look after the all important gut bacteria... I've heard Biogaia are good... and you can buy them on Amazon!