Infant acceptance of a bitter-tasting liquid medication: a randomized controlled trial comparing the Rx Medibottle with an oral syringe.

Author(s): Purswani MU, Radhakrishnan J, Irfan KR, Walter-Glickman C, Hagmann S, Neugebauer R

Affiliation(s): Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, 1685 Morris Avenue, Bronx, NY 10457, USA. mpurswan@bronxleb.org

Publication date & source: 2009-02, Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med., 163(2):186-8.

Publication type:

The calibrated oral syringe is considered the standard system for administering liquid formulations of medications to infants. Medication acceptance using the syringe may not always be favorable, particularly with unpleasant-tasting liquids. The Rx Medibottle (The Medicine Bottle Co, Hinsdale, Illinois), an alternate drug-delivery device, is an infant-feeding bottle that contains a central sleeve within its body into which a syringe is inserted. Depressing the syringe's plunger in quick, short squirts synchronized with an infant's sucking allows drug ingestion, preventing dilution of the drug in the formula within the bottle's nipple. The Rx Medibottle costs $14.95 retail. Kraus et al demonstrated that it was more efficacious, with a higher level of infant acceptance compared with the syringe, when used to administer a 1-time dose of a pleasant-tasting liquid (acetaminophen, Tempra Syrup; Mead Johnson Nutritionals, Evansville, Indiana). Our study tests the efficacy of this bottle in administering a single dose of generic prednisolone liquid, a bitter-tasting drug, with an oral syringe serving as the control method of delivery.