Aaro first become unwell two weeks ago when he lost his appetite, become more clingy and had a high temperature
Kaydee and her son, Aaro
A mum from Blackpool whose son has Strep A has told how she managed to get him to take his antibiotics – although they didn’t taste nice. Kaydee Gilliard said her three-year-old son – Aaro Shelmerdine – recently fell ill with Strep A.
This illness is usually treated with either penicillin and amoxicillin. However, due to a recent rise in infections, Kaydee says she was had to drive around multiple pharmacies before she could get the latter.
And the issues didn’t end there as her son initially refused to swallow the medicine.
READ MORE: Strep A claims the lives of more than 15 children across the UK
The mum says he could still taste it even if she disguised it with yoghurt or his usual drink. After some time, she finally found ways to get him to take the medicine.
She decided to share her tips on Facebook to help any other parents who might be struggling, MEN reports. She wrote: “I can almost guarantee there’s a mum somewhere pulling her hair out trying to get these horrid red antibiotics down their poorly child today (it was me). I thought I would share some tips on how I got Aaro to take his with his Strep A / RSV this week:
“1 – Put it on a spoon with some sprinkles and then the child thinks they are magic. I got this one online and tried it. This worked once but after he tasted them the first time it was game over. Might work for others.
“2 – Put them in one of Aldi’s smoothie cartons. I would recommend pouring it into their water bottle if you don’t have a dropper thing that fits into the straw bit. The water bottle worked the whole week!!
“3 – A bowl of Coco Pops then add extra chocolate milkshake powder into the milk so it’s more chocolatey – This I did on a fluke and it worked really well in the morning doses!”
The 31-year-old, who works in marketing, said: “I posted the tips to see if it might help someone as I really struggled. It wasn’t the usual yellow stuff, it’s this really strong tasking red antibiotics for the Strep A.”
She told how Aaro first become unwell two weeks ago when he lost his appetite, become more clingy and had a high temperature. Soon after, he developed a cough and ‘his tongue was covered in white then it went like raspberry’.
Kaydee said: “Once it was a few days on, he got a tongue like a strawberry and red patches on his face,” she said. “His rash was only mild, but it felt like rough bumps, like sand on his skin.”
She said struggling to get him to take his medication left her feeling ‘like a failure as a parent’. Thankfully Aaro has made a full recovery and was back in nursery yesterday, just in time to enjoy some Christmas fun.
Health officials have lowered the prescription threshold for the antibiotics following an outbreak of the invasive Group A streptococcal infection (iGAS), which has killed 16 children in recent weeks. But that’s led to a surge in demand.
Some parents have had to travel miles to get what they need, while others are being given it in tablet form and told to crush them up for their kids. While the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has said that pharmacists are ‘under enormous pressure’ and ‘struggling to get supplies’, the government is denying there is any shortage.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “There is no supplier shortage of antibiotics available to treat Strep A. We sometimes have surges for products and increased demand means some pharmacies are having difficulties obtaining certain antibiotics.
- 08:42, 16 DEC 2022
Be the first to comment on "Blackpool mum’s ‘magic’ trick to get son to take antibiotics after Strep A diagnosis"