As a mom of 3, I do not let my kids refuse their meds, when they need them.
If they like the med, great (PJ just LOVES the new Sudafed chewable
decongestant), if they don't, too bad for them. :)  I will coerce or force
if I have to, and I am very firm about it.  Thankfully, none of my kids has
needed medication on any kind of regular basis, so I have been lucky there.
However, another friend of mine has a daughter who needs antibiotics all the
time (long story) and the girl (just turned 2) refuses the meds all the
time, of spits them out and my friend gets frustrated and the kid ends up
not getting all of what she needs.

Giving kids medication can be a real pain in the butt...especially when the
child doesn't feel well and is therefore more difficult to reason with.

I have found that if the child will not drink a liquid med from a small cup,
I put the med in a dropper and while they holler, I deposit a SMALL amount
of the med on their tongue, they swallow, holler some more, and the process
repeats until all the med has been given.  What I don't like, is putting a
liquid med in some other liquid (juice, kool-aide, etc.) and then hoping
that they drink it all.  Most times they don't and thatis a problem.

One last thing, I don't regularly medicate my kids when they have fevers or
colds.  I try to only medicate a cold at bedtime, so everyone can get some
sleep, and fevers only if they get above 102, otherwise I let the fever do
its work and the cold run its course.  And, of course, I check with the Ped
if I feel things jsut aren't quite right, or if I have questions.

News from our house - I have 2 sick kids right now thanks to a woman who
brought her sick little boy (hacking, coughing, green runny nose) to a
birthday party we went to, and she told everyone that her son had asthma.
Uh, huh...right.  I know asthma, and that wasn't it!

Oh, the hardest part with otc's is that osme of them don't work very well
even tho they seem to have the same "actve ingredients" (amounts and
everything) in them as others.  I never understood this, and still don't.

Jay,
Not looking forward to tonight...hope they sleep well - poor boys.
Jay Simpson, CLE
Sacramento (State Capital), California, West Coast, USA
"No Miracles performed here, just a lot of love and hard work."