Just a spoon full of sugar

Little C has been fighting off the crud for what seems like forever now. He is supposed to take a decongestant twice a day to keep all this crud from turning into a sinus infection, but he has absolutely developed a black belt in medicine refusal. It takes both of us holding him down and sometimes holding his nose to get him to open his mouth. Once we get the medicine IN his mouth, it usually gets spit back in our face.

Tonight however, we discovered the power of candy-bribery. I had a dum-dum in my mouth during all this hooplah (hard candies help when I'm feeling nauseous), and when I took it out to avoid getting impaled by the stick as he was squirming he opened his mouth REALLY wide wanting the sucker. We seized the opportunity and squirted in the medicine then immediately followed it with the sucker. It took two seconds to get him to take a syringe full of medicine without spilling so much as a drop! I couldn't believe it. He cried when we took the sucker away, but we let him suck on it long enough he definitely (hopefully) has figured out there is a reward to taking his medicine. And yes, I will be stocking up on dum-dums for as long as we have to force him to take this medicine.

So, add this to list of things I swore I would never do as a mom - bribing my kid with candy to get him to take medicine!