“Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” ... unless you’re trying to give the medicine to a fussy baby.
A U.K. mom and nurse practitioner shared a clever hack for parents struggling to get babies to take medicine.
On Saturday, Helena Lee posted a photo of a trick that worked with her fever-stricken son Alfie on Facebook.
“FOR ALL MUMMIES,” she wrote in the caption. “So for the last 24 hours I’ve struggled to get Alfie to take Calpol, he has ended up covered in half of it where he spits it at me......Then I remembered seeing this trick.”
The photos show her 8-week-old son Alfie getting his syringe of fever medicine in a more comforting and familiar way ― through the nipple of his baby bottle.
“Not 1 bit got wasted and no tears,” she wrote, encouraging people to share the tip with other parents they know.
The mom’s Facebook post has been shared more than 120,000 times. Lee, who also has a 4-year-old son, told HuffPost she can’t remember where exactly she first saw this medicine hack, but “it was most definitely online somewhere when I was browsing.”
Indeed, similar images have appeared on Pinterest.
“I decided to share the trick as I have quite a few mummy friends on my Facebook and thought if I hadn’t seen it before then surely a few of them probably hadn’t either,” Lee explained. “And I decided I couldn’t be the only one trying to get a little one to take medicine.”
The mom also told HuffPost she wasn’t expecting the viral response. “I literally meant it for a few personal friends. The response has been absolutely insane. It’s madness. I still actually can’t believe it.”
As for her baby boy, he’s in good health. Said Lee, “Alfie is back to his usual happy smily self now.”
