Anyone's Baby Using Macrodantin/nitrofurantoin? How to Make Him Swallow It?

Updated on June 10, 2014
A.C. asks from Beverly Hills, CA
6 answers

Our 5 month old has been prescribed nitrofurantoin for his recurrent UTIs. (Ours is not brand name Macrodantin, since we live in Europe, but the effective ingredient is the same.) The medicine is powder and mixed in water or food.

The problem is, it tastes so horrible baby doesn't swallow it and has even thrown up after taking it. I have tried almost all possible tricks I know with no help. Has anyone with the same drug any good ideas what to do? Or do you know any other drugs with nitrofurantoin that would be easier to give and taste better?

Currently we mix it with water and deliver it to the back of his mouth, which is usually recommended. We have tried also sweeten it, but it made hardly any difference. I have understood the taste is so bad, it is difficult to "hide" in any other food. Also our baby is still exclusively breastfed, so we won't get soon to such amounts of solid foods where we might be able to hide it.

Thanks, if anyone can help. Please excuse me my English, I am not a native English speaker.

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So What Happened?

Thank you all for your answers. Our doctor changed the medication to another one, this one tastes so good he would want to eat the dispenser too. Now we wish he won’t catch bacteria resistent to this, as he did earlier.

If there is someone with the same problem, best solution we came up with was to mix the drug with apple juice. Our baby still didn’t swallow it, but at least he didn’t seem to think the taste was horrible. It is worth a trying.

Suzi, he was prescribed earlier Keflex (with a different brandname though), but it is not recommended for long term use and it was terrible for his stomach. We have used probiotic bacterium for him (not acidophilus but lactobacillus GG, since it has been proved to be able to prevent allergies/atopy at least to some degree), but it was good you pointed out to give it few hours later than the antibiotic. I hadn’t thought of that and we have given it just after antiobiotic from time to time.

I’ll try cranberry and EFA as soon as we proceed with other foods than breastmilk. I’ll probably try eating them myself. I don’t know if they pass on to breastmilk, they won’t be of any harm anyway. I have tried to be extremely carefull with hygiene and changing diapers, I am even thinking of trying to learn when he will need to go to bathroom, so he could be diaper free. Doctors told me though, the cause could be other than hygiene.

Thank you Jane for your links. I wish I had found those sooner. If we need to switch back to the old drug, I’ll certainly try one of those.

Thank you also Nicole and Sybil for your ideas. I am fairly well aware of allergies and I can’t see a link between these two. Since the consequenses of untreated UTI and pyelonephritis can be very serious, I will rather follow our hospital’s recommendations.

And then something about this site: I do live in Europe and this site registration required me to enter an American zip code.

More Answers

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S.B.

answers from Los Angeles on

Hi, I'm not a doctor and don't know your baby's situation, but my little girl had frequent bladder infections also. They would give her Keflex to get rid of the infection, but the only thing that stopped them was helping her keep the poop out of "there" and then giving her a cocktail of cranberry, acidophilus, EFA pills (Essential Fatty Acids oil) and vitamin C. All of those things can be put in a juice and then a bottle and they taste great. This has prevented any further infections in my daughter, once the initial infection was cleared.

My daughter was 4-1/2 - 5 when she started getting those so it is a very different age, and the cause was clear; she was not wiping properly. But boosting her immune system went a long way to prevent it from re-occuring.

Either way, if you do manage to get the medicine down in him, make sure you give him the acidophilus about an hour or two after each dose to replenish his good flora and prevent the thrush and/or candida that get out of hand when taking any antibiotic.

In a little one like this, they can't swallow the pill and if it tastes that bad, what can you do? Does the Dr. have any suggestions? Sometimes they have suppositories to administer medicines like this that are hard to take.

Best of luck to you and I'm sorry you have to go through this! It was hard enough when my daughter got them later! I can't imagine dealing with this with such a young little guy!

1 mom found this helpful
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J.K.

answers from Los Angeles on

My child is not taking this medicine, but I saw some products online that might help (although I have never used these items myself) in your situation. The first item is called ReliaDose. Here's the website where you can take a look at it: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...
The other item is called The Medicator by Munchkin. Here's the website for the item: http://www.munchkin.com/products/detail.html?pID=220&...
I think for both items the medicine needs to be in liquid form. However, maybe you could mix the powder with water first and then put it in the dispensers.

1 mom found this helpful
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D.K.

answers from Detroit on

Our 3 year old is on nitrofurantoin for her infection & giving her med is a huge production. She's very suspicious of treats because we've given her medications through them before so she doesn't even take candy, chocolate, even POP anymore. She's so strong we need 3 people to hold her down, it's very traumatizing for her. And we have to do this for 10 days 3 times a day.i was so desperate for help !! I'm mostly home by myself w her so no one could help me pin her down as horrible as that sounds.i got so frustrated so i called my doctor back and the pediatrician gave me a sample of flavorplus medicine flavoring drops to help flavor the medication.i added a bit of the strawberry flavoring to the medicine and it helped the medication taste a bit better.i would suggest to every struggling mom outthere to ask your doctor about the flavorplus stuff and save yourself a great deal of time and energy

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

N.W.

answers from Los Angeles on

I don't know what macrodantin/nityrodurantoin is but most mental and physical illenesses are caused by allergies. You may want to look into NAET.com for allergy eliminations.

Be well.

N.

S.I.

answers from San Diego on

Dear A.,

Please take your son to a homeopath. The recurrent UTIs could be SOOOO easy to cure with natural homeopathic means in a child so young. There is no reason why your baby should have to be subjected to nasty antibiotics at his age. They might temporarily relieve, but they will NOT keep the UTIs from coming back, and they can also disturb the natural flora in an infant. Homeopathy WILL actually cure the condition.

If you're living in Europe, there should be homeopathic physicians aplenty. If you're in Beverly Hills, I can recommend a couple of L.A. based homeopaths to you who will do a good job for your baby if you write back.

Best wishes!

S. I., L.Ac., HMA
Lotus Wellspring Healthcare
456 E. Mission Road, Suite 100
San Marcos, CA 92069
###-###-####
____@____.com
www.lotuswellspring.com

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

C.F.

answers from Los Angeles on

5 mos is old enough to start solid foods -- try mixing it in a baby food like pureed fruit -- applesauce. The small amount of solid food at this point won't hinder your breast feeding.

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