Via Sara:
The nurse at our pediatrian's office taught us a trick to get infants to swallow medicine: blow in their face. It surprises them so much they swallow as a reflex. We also used this, with moderate success, to surprise our little girl out of a crying loop. We call it "the reset button."
[This trick only worked once or twice on my son, but your mileage may vary. -- Ed.]
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ROTFL.....this is the way you give medicine to a dog! You hold their mouth closed and blow in their nose so they will swallow it.
Posted by: momma2mingbu | 30 April 2006 at 07:41 AM
I used to teach swimming, and we would blow in the toddlers faces before dunking them underwater.
Posted by: Patrick Fitzgerald | 01 May 2006 at 08:58 AM
Kids, dogs, how much of a difference is there, at least at first? (We had always put off getting a pet saying if we were going to be tied down, we might as well have a kid. After having a kid, we decided that a dog would have been great training for a kid.)
Posted by: Sara in Austin | 01 May 2006 at 03:36 PM
We used iTunes visualizers to hypnotize our babies for a few seconds - while they are in the trance, they will take anything given to them by mouth. It helps to play music with a good beat (my wife's techno works well in a pinch). They'll never know what hit 'em - and they will associate something fun with taking the medicine.
Posted by: Peter | 01 May 2006 at 08:03 PM
I tried this and it didn't work for me. But what did work is as soon as I put the medicine in her mouth I wiped at her lips with a wipe. To my surprise she clamped her mouth shut and swallowed instead of spewing pink goo all over me.
Posted by: Cathy White | 04 May 2006 at 09:58 AM
I mentioned this one to my pediatrician and she said that this is how you get kids to breathe in (hence doing it before you swim) and could cause them to aspirate the medicine, so she didn't recommend it. this did come from a nurse, so maybe it's safe, but just thought i'd mention this.
Posted by: Mary | 13 June 2006 at 10:25 AM