A Spoonful of Sugar...

One or Two Spoonfuls at a time...

A friend and I were just discussing how the interface with medical providers, on the receiving end (patients, parents of patients or offspring of patients) can be rough and lacking in simple important advice.

So, here is a practical topic: helping kids swallow the pills they need to take for medical reasons.

Difficulty or strong dislike of pill swallowing is very common in childhood; the burden is highest on parents when the pill is chronically needed.

It is important to remember that this is developmentally normative (many kids are like that) and typically not permanent. The majority of kids are not inveterately unable to swallow pills and parents want to avoid labelling the behavior as a trait, e.g., "she just can't swallow pills.." Childhood is a time a rapid successive development and changes when seemingly stable characteristics like hating brussel sprouts or  not being comfortable swallowing pills can often disappear especially if left alone, not labelled or mythologized.

 Below are 3 practical ideas for pills that should not be chewed, crushed, or diluted in other food/drink items. 
Many medications come in liquid or can be "liquefied"by being crushed or diluted into liquid or apple/equivalent sauce, in which case the first idea can still apply.

1-For "Bad" tastes use the super-power of cold to numb taste perception: cold water, cold milk, cold medicine (use the refrigerator), popsicles or ice cream. If that is not enough, you can always request gel caps from your pharmacy and insert the pill inside the gel cap (but would recommend trying the other approaches first.)

2-For "Big"pills, use habituation using tools that are engaging and typically well accepted by children: candy. The idea is to start with something small like a tic-tac and work up to swallowing something bigger like an M&M, which is typically sufficiently big for mastery of large pill swallowing.

3-For gagging: try coating the pill with a less gag inducing texture (e.g., yogurt, pudding, ice cream) or if the pill is in a gel cap, coat it with water or juice to make it easier to swallow.


Till Later,

Anne