No-Miss Medication Reminders: Keep Your Child on Schedule

When your child gets sick, there is enough to worry about without adding the pressure of medication into the mix. How hard is it to remember medication? Strangely enough, this can be one of the hardest things a mom has to do. With all the day to day logistics of caring for your family, working and keeping yourself healthy on your shoulders, recalling whether or not you gave little guy his teaspoon of pink goo today can slip your mind completely. Stop wondering what dose you are on, and implement a no-fail strategy immediately.

No-miss medication chart
Make a chart showing the plan for the week. This can be as simple as a piece of white paper, lined with the days and times medication needs to be taken. Hang a pack of smiley face or star stickers nearby. Every time your child takes a dose, they can place a sticker on the chart.

Set your phone
I had a, "why didn't I think of that moment, when my friends phone alarm went off and she reached for her purse. Pulling out her pills it occurred to me to use technology to help remember doses. When my son needed to take medication three times a day, the plan was outlined on my phone an alarms set so we wouldn't forget.

Lifesaver
A strangely effective strategy worked for my daughter. I put a pack of lifesavers with her pain relievers, that she hated. She was rewarded with a lifesaver every time she took her pill. The key to making this work was to count out the lifesavers and the medication.

Make it part of the day to day routine
Your child has to eat everyday, so as long as the medication instructions do not include, take on an empty stomach, you can tie this into their eating schedule. Before breakfast, before lunch, before dinner, works better than after; you have a captive audience before they eat.

Photos
A little extreme, but sometimes necessary. Use your phone to take a photo of your child taking their medication. This made it fun for my foster girl, she was such a little ham. Before we started the photo documentation, she would do anything to hide from her medication. Pull out the camera though and every dose was a chance to pose, plus I had a record of the time and date of the dosage.

When medication is necessary, but your brain is overloaded, implement a no-fail strategy, or combination of strategies, to stay on schedule.


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