Our recent family tradition includes Friday nights filled with Chipotle and Shark Tank. Since we came late to the party, there were plenty of old episodes on Hulu to help us get our Shark Tank fix. One of my favorite presenters was Tiffany Krumins and her product, Ava the Elephant.
Ava is a children’s medicine dispenser and was born out of a desire to remove the tears from the process of administering medicine to kids! Her background, experience, and passion from working with kids, including those with special needs and childhood cancer patients, gave her the motivation to make Ava the Elephant a reality. Recently, after connecting with Tiffany through social media, she sent me an Ava the Elephant to test out on my own boys!
One of the things I love about Ava is the fact that it is so simple to use. It comes with a medicine dropper that can be used with any liquid medicine, including liquid vitamins. You simply fill the dropper with the requisite amount of medicine and insert the dropper into Ava’s long nose. Then you press the button in the back which gives a fun countdown, “1, 2, 3….Open wide! Good job!” while you simultaneously squeeze the medicine into your child’s mouth. You then wash the dropper, rinse Ava and you are ready for your next round of medication.
Recently, Jack (14 months) was extremely ill and required alternating doses of Acetaminophen & Ibuprofen, and then later we had to add in an antibiotic. Ava arrived about half-way through and we had the opportunity to put her to the test. Jack’s initial reaction was happiness and he acted like an elephant himself! One of his favorite animals is an elephant and he loves to make the sound. He also loved the voice and was drawn to it whenever the button was pushed, regardless of what room in the house he was in.
When it came time to give him his medicine, he came over when we had Ava out and was definitely interested. He smiled and we were able to get about 3/4 of his dose in before he started to resist! This was a vast improvement over the previous dosages which usually ended up more on his face, shirt, and hands than it did in his mouth! I think he eventually caught on that we were using Ava to give him the medicine though and resisted a little more than when we first started with her. Our older son, Charlie (3 years), loves Ava and takes medicine when necessary from her like a charm! Despite some bumps with Jack’s doses, I think Ava is a fantastic product for children. It takes the sting out of administering medicine and does it in a fun way.
Some suggestions from me to parents when preparing to use Ava: As is suggested on the website, prepare your child by “administering” milk or their favorite juice through the dropper first. Using the dropper & Ava when they are NOT sick can definitely work wonders! (And I agree with this sentiment whole-heartedly!) Second, once medicine is required, use Ava consistently and from the beginning if you can. By starting half-way through, your child will know that medicine is coming and naturally resist, regardless of the source.
This is a brilliant idea! I got a little teary eyed thinking about the children battling cancer needing to take their meds 🙁
So far, Oliver’s only had to take medicine once, and that was very recently. Imagine my surprise when he took his four daily doses for ten days without a word of protest! It was amazing.
As a kid, I would NOT take medicine. Once, it got so bad, my mom covered up my mouth with her hand after putting it in my mouth so that I’d swallow it. I shot it out my nose! Something like this must be a life saver for many parents and sick kids. I’m making a mental note to remember this product in case my second child isn’t as good about taking medicine as my first 😉