A simple way to keep track of kids medicine

I wanted to share how I keep track of the medicine that needs to be taken over a course of a few days. It is not fancy but has saved me a lot of headache: the less I keep in my brain, the better I handle (never ending) daily “to-do”s.

Most antibiotics are prescribed for 7– 10 days. After a couple of days, especially if there are multiple doses a day, I used to lose track of which dose we are on.

So I simply drew ten circles on my dry-erase menu board (for a ten-day treatment course) and crossed out a circle after each dose was taken.

For multiple doses I cross the circle with one line per each dose. I’ve been doing it ever since.

This “medicine tracking” board works for me for a few reasons:

* It is right at the spot where the medicine is given. Antibiotics are often required to be refrigerated and/or taken with food and so are stored and consumed in the kitchen. I can mark the board immediately before I get distracted and forget.

*Crossing out a circle is an incentive for the kid to take the medicine. This works with the little ones who refuse to open their mouth and you are looking for different ways to bribe them.

*Other family members can easily see if the medicine has been given so there is no danger of accidental overdose.

If I didn’t have my dry-erase menu board (which I love by the way. Here is why, except I replaced #2 with the dry-erase board), I would use this method on a paper grocery list or even a family calendar. Anything that has a permanent place in the kitchen would work.

You could dress it up and maybe even add a sticker system to incentivize the kid to take the medicine but it works very well for us even in the basic form.