The Coffee Creamer Medicine Hack!
“I’m so offended when my body decides to be sick. I gave you a vegetable last week. How dare you?”
If it feels like your kid is always sick, you may not be wrong. According to Health.choc.org, “It is very common for toddlers and pre-school-aged children to have as many as 8 to 12 colds, respiratory infections and or/stomach bugs a year.” We are deep in the throes of cold and flu season. I swear it’s been significantly worse this year! Every other day, a different mom friend or co-worker’s child has the Flu, RSV, Strep, or the stomach bug. (Not to mention the ear infection that is sure to follow a cold due to congestion.) I wish we could Lysol wipe all of Louisiana right now. Unfortunately, that is not an option. I did come across a trick that has been a game changer for my five-year-old to actually take medicine!
The night before we were leaving for an out-of-town wedding, my son started complaining about his ears. My husband and I looked at each other with pure dread. We rushed him to the walk-in clinic two hours before they closed, and he had a double ear infection. My poor buddy would get sporadic shooting pain in both ears and would cry out with pain with each wave of pain. He has always been a terrible medicine taker. By terrible I mean he throws up every time we give him Tylenol, not counting antibiotics. That stuff is absolutely disgusting! We picked up the antibiotics with no expectation for him to take it.
I immediately texted my mom friends in a group text lamenting about our situation. One of them asked “Have you tried the coffee creamer trick?” I had not heard of this hack before and immediately wanted to know all of the details. It completely saved our trip! (Thank God for mom friends. Am I right?) After you get the correct dosage of medicine, add a little coffee creamer to it and mix it up. The combination of coffee creamer and the cold masks the taste of the medicine just enough to get it down. I find the vanilla coffee creamer is the most neutral one to mix with whatever flavor medicine you have on hand. We put a concoction of Tylenol or Ibuprofen, antibiotic, and vanilla creamer.
