Medicine with Marshmallows

Alanna shares my childhood dislike of syrup medicines. In the past when she's been sick the medicine battle has been a painful one that to a third party observer may be considered comical. Getting syrup medicine down here often includes at least one change of clothes for all parties involved as well as a bath sometimes and half a bottle of wasted medicine on the floor. Sometimes it's involved one parent holding the child semi upside down while the other tries desperately to get the medicine in her mouth.

In an effort to avoid these battles we switched over to chewable medicine and those little strips that dissolve on the tongue. To be honest though, they really don't seem to work as well as the syrups do for the symptoms.

The latest cold has been a doozy and I prepared myself for the syrup battle. This time I thought I'd try the bribery up front and told her she could have a marshmallow (the cute little bunny Easter ones that are out right now) if she took the syrup. I also offered to put it in a syringe and let her push the plunger. I even offered a bonus sticker for her sticker chart if she was a big girl about taking her medicine. Visuals of grape syrup all over can be very motivating to a mommy.

Now I was thinking she'd take the medicine and I'd give her the marshmallows and sticker. She actually devised her own new way of taking medicine that has worked beautifully now for a total of 4 doses over the past couple days.

Insert 1 bunny marshmallow into mouth and chew slightly
Open mouth enough for 1/2 of the syrup in the syringe to be squirted in
Chew
Take a sip of water to wash down remaining syrup and marshmallow
Repeat

She claims the marshmallow makes the syrup taste good. Win Win.
Yay!