Charlie loves Tylenol and Advil to a degree that somewhat worries me. When he sees a bottle of Tylenol or Advil in my hand he waits patiently for me to twist off the lid. Once it is off he excitedly opens his mouth for a dose of medicine. Antibiotics, on the other hand, he does not accept with such grace.
He is currently on his fourth round of antibiotics this month (that should probably be another blog post all together). The first was for a bronchial infection and the other three have been for a recurring ear infection. We are actually going to the ear, nose and throat doctor on Friday to have his ears checked out. But, I digress.
Two of his four antibiotics needed to be administered with food, but an hour after a bottle. At first, I tried to give him the antibiotic out of the dropper after he finished his meal. That ended in failure. He would just spit it out leaving me super confused about how much he actually got and if I should administer more. After a few failed attempts I figured out that he doesn’t even notice the taste of an antibiotic if I mix it with 2 tsps of baby food.
Combining an antibiotic with baby food might be considered a risky move by some. The trick is to give him just enough food to mask the taste of the antibiotic. Once he finishes the mixed food I continue feeding him the rest of whatever I have pureed for him. This also works because Charlie is 10 months old. When he isn’t feeling well he tends to revert back to pureed foods over finger foods.
If you have a finger foods baby, the trick can still work. Simply sub out mixing the antibiotic with puree and replace with whole milk, formula or breast milk, depending on what your baby drinks. Make a one or two ounce bottle and drop the dose of the antibiotic into the bottle. Then give baby bottle as normal. Obviously, this is not a good choice for antibiotics that cannot be mixed with dairy or calcium. First and foremost make sure to follow the directions set out by your doctor and your pharmacist.
