My Toddler, the Pill Popper

A couple of weeks ago, the monkey caught a bad case of the flu. She had a good weeks worth of fever, coughing, runny nose, etc. So, during this time, upon the doctor's advice, I gave her an assortment of meds - mostly children's Tylenol before bed for the fever, and some cough syrup for kids, as needed, depending on how much she was coughing. Both of these meds have been specially formulated with flavours that make them appealing to children. Seems like a good idea, because of course if it tastes awful, it might be hard to get your child to take it when they need it. Unfortunately for us, we had the opposite problem. The little monkey liked the bubblegum flavour of both meds so much that she considered them to be basically a candy-like treat. I tend to use medicine sparingly and only when really needed, but the monkey kept on asking for it all the time, and just wouldn't give up already.

``Mommy, please! I need medicine! I`m sick mommy, I have a fever! I need it! I need it!``

You get the idea. This same phrase, with slight variations, was repeated ad nauseum, long past the point when she no longer needed it in any way. Even now, several weeks later, she will occasionally ask for medicine, claiming to be sick, though she is gradually getting somewhat discouraged by the consistent NO! response.

I told this story to a friend of mine with a similarly aged daughter, thinking that my child was a freak for loving medicine, and she laughed and told me that her daughter does the exact same thing, sometimes claiming to have a tummy ache, when she obviously doesn't. Not sure what the answer to this is, but it almost seems that by making the stuff taste too good, it's almost dangerous, because children are far more likely to have accidental overdoses if the manage to get their paws on stuff. Of course, I keep it all in a safe place out of reach, but anyone who has small children can attest to the fact that they are pretty darned resourceful when they want to be, so it's still a worry. Anyhow, I may start purchasing less kid friendly products in the future in order to alleviate this issue.