Drugs, Love and Deception

This weekend my bff traveled many miles with her family to visit us on their way to the beach.  You can imagine how disappointed we were when our whole family came down with some sort of flu.  And then JP developed a double ear infection.  After three trips to the doctor in two weeks, JP was finally prescribed an antibiotic.  Unfortunately,  he thinks it (Cefdinir) tastes "yucky".  After he spit it out twice, I did a little research.  Here are some of my favorite tips for getting your kids to take yucky medicine:
1. Serve it up on a spoon dipped in chocolate syrup. The chocolate on the bottom side of the spoon touches their tongue first and eases the pain. :-)
2. Ask your pharmacist to flavor it.  (I tried this but certain medications don't mix with the flavoring).  Let your child pick the flavor if it will work with the drug.
3.  Ask your pharmacist if the drug can be diluted in food or beverage.  Some drugs shouldn't be mixed with certain ingredients, so make sure and ask the pharmacist before you dilute any drug.  Ours said we could mix it with orange juice or milk, and to serve a small amount to make sure JP drank it all.  If you go this route you want to make sure your child drinks all of whatever you serve so they get all their medicine.  I ended up waiting for mid-morning snack (so he was good and hungry) and made a fruit smoothie for everyone, hiding the medicine in a small amount of smoothie for JP.  He drank it to the last drop and asked for seconds, never knowing that he had just taken his 'yucky' medicine. ;-)
Do you have any tips for getting your kids to take their medicine?

Drink up! ;-)