Lucas and his meds

*sigh* It is still so cold here in Tarbes, it feels like winter is back...

Lucas & I were out in town today as Lucas needed to see the doctor again, this time for conjunctivitis. Its another 7 days of "hell" - Lucas is on 7 days of antibiotics and the icing on the cake? After holding him down and giving him the antibiotics with a syringe (poor baby is crying and keeps saying "all done mama, all done" - his way of asking me to stop) I have to pop the top off sterile solution to wash his eyes - though why would I ever need to do that as he is bawling his eyes out by then, aren't tears nature's way of cleaning the eyes????; after which I have to put 2 drops of eye ointment into his eye.

Both mama and baby were utterly exhausted - Lucas was SWEATING from exertion! And to think... we have 6.5 days to go..., twice a day, morning and night :P

Its already hard for a mom to cope with a sick baby, but when baby is fighting the meds, it makes it all even harder. And Lucas is so strong now I have to literally pin him down.

However, I have to say that there has been improvement on Lucas' part when it comes to taking the meds - he will not voluntarily take the meds and he will cry but now, he swallows the meds instead of spitting it out.

How to feed medication to a strong willed toddler who refuses to swallow or vomits out all the meds?

We are having trouble trying to feed meds to our 25 month old headstrong toddler. I have a feeling that his cough and cold keeps reccuring because he never finishes his antibiotics, not because we do not give him his meds but its virtually impossible to get our toddler to swallow!
I have tried to disguise his meds and slip it into his milk or food but to no avail - Lucas seems to have superior sense of smell and could somehow smell the meds even without tasting the food, refusing the food with a loud resounding "NO"! I have tried to give him his meds with a spoon instead of the medicine syringe. Still "NO"! I thought that since at this age, he may want some control and may want to feed himself, so I gave him the medical syringe and told him to do it himself - he refused to even touch the syringe and ran off instead.
I hate having to restrain him and force feed him his meds but Lucas leaves us no choice and his health is more important to us, so everyday, twice a day Fred has to hold Lucas while I try to make him open his mouth for me to put the medical syringe into his cheek pocket. Even then he refuses to swallow the meds and spits it out. Just yesterday, I made the mistake of feeding him Advil less than an hour after his milk and he promptly threw up all over me - some of the Advil went into my eye!

Last night I went on the internet to find out if other parents out there may have a secret tip or something and one parent gave this advice - blow gently on baby's face while feeding the meds to make them swallow. I tried it on Lucas (aiya, I am also down with a cold and cough but getting Lucas to take his antibiotics trumped this fact) and managed to get him to swallow most of his antibiotics and Advil. Last night, Lucas and I slept through the night AND for the first time in 25 months, I slept through until 10 am this morning! And we would not have woken up if Fred hadn't called...

Last weekend

We were woken up by a sickly Lucas at 4 am this morning. He has bronchitis according to the doctor and has to take antibiotics for 7 days. We skipped creche and my class this morning and stayed home to rest. He wanted to drink his milk at 4 and then he played for a bit before falling into a deep sleep at 6 am, so my morning was more or less shot. Fred was grumpy at being woken up, but he went back to sleep at 5. Anyway Lucas had his first banana flavored med this morning via a syringe as he refused to drink his milk when I mixed it into his milk.
The antibiotic came in a small bottle, in powder form. When I measured out the dosage as instructed by the Pharmacist I was wondering why the bottle of med which was supposed to last at least 6 doses was already three quarter empty. Luckily Fred reread the instructions and found that we have to mix water into the bottle! I was really upset the pharmacist didn't give me the right instructions! I could have ODed my baby on the meds! (but actually even if I did mix it all into the milk, he wouldn't drink it...)

Anyway, as our regular older doctor was unavailable, we went to see the younger one who took offence when I asked him if there was another alternative to antibiotics. He got upset and told me in English "if you do not want to give him my medicine, then you can give him whatever you want!" He did print out the prescription for me anyway and shook my hand on my way out but I won't go back to him again. His dad is a much, much better doctor who explains everything to me and is a nicer person too.

Last weekend was a busy one. I tried cepes for the first time. Its a mushroom found here and is seasonal. Its also known as porcini. There is a man selling cepe by the roadside for 24.50 euro a kg. He is also selling it with girolles which is yellow mushroom cooked with cepe. We bought a little (9 euro) and Fred cooked it with olive oil and garlic. It was really yummy! If it wasn't so expensive I would eat it everyday!

We also went to Auch on Sunday to have lunch at Eric & Solange's place. Auch is an hour's drive away from Tarbes going towards Toulouse. Its a small town with historical sites and buildings. Although Auch has only 26,000 residents (Tarbes has 46,000) Auch is more "happening" compared to Tarbes. As we were there on a Sunday, the streets were deserted like many towns in South France. I guess most people spend their Sundays resting at home or outdoors in the mountains.

Eric & Solange live in a quaint 3 storey townhouse with Solange's 3 kids. For lunch Solange made tuna basil asparagus salad and raclette (as starters), roti porc (roasted pork), ratatouille and mashed potato (For Lucas). The ratatouille was heavenly! We finished off with grapes and cheese and coffee. After lunch they took us for a short drive to the Chateau de Lavardens, a 12th century fortress overlooking the picturesque countryside of Gers. The chateau was given to Antoine de Roquelaure in 1585 who proceeded to do massive renovation to the castle for his young bride. Unfortunately the reno works were never finished as Roquelaure died. This Castle is still being renovated to this day. The castle features 19 magnificent stone mosaic floors and big big windows (as the bride requested for huge windows to let the sunlight in).