Teaching a child to swallow pills

[ChicagoMom]

Any advice on teaching a child to swallow pills? My daughter, L (age 11), started on Prednisone, 6-mp and Pentasa this week. The Pentasa capsules are pretty big and she has to take 4 a day. The doctor said I could open them and pour the contents into a spoonful of applesauce or something, but I really just want her to learn how to swallow everything. I'm trying to convince her that swallowing the pills whole will make the med process take 2 minutes rather than 10, and she's on board with that, but I'm just wondering if anyone has any good tricks for this?

Thanks!

 

[my little penguin]

http://www.ccfa.org/resources/pill-swallowing-techniques.html

That is what we used.
DS learned to swallow pentasa after a week
We used the empty capsule ( after dumping the beads as practice )
Less frustrating that way

 

[Sascot]

My son learned with antibiotic capsules. I pretty much threw it as far down his throat as possible till he had to swallow :lol:. Good luck

 

[nogutsnoglory]

I don't know how you get kids to take pills but I have seen a product that may be helpful called Pill glide.

I believe it's a flavored spray that lubricates the throat and makes it easier to swallow pills. I never tried it but here is the link http://flavorx.com/products/pill-glide/

I have seen it at major pharmacies.

 

[theOcean]

Prednisone is the trickiest one, I think. It tastes terrible! I would usually try and take my pills with milk, usually if I'm eating something that tastes strong and makes me thirsty like peanut butter. Then I wouldn't taste them at all.

 

[DustyKat]

Twiggy once posted a link that has training videos on how to teach kids to swallow pills:

http://research4kids.ucalgary.ca/pillswallowing

Dusty.

 

[Mehita]

My son will only take pills with a thick liquid like milk or Ensure. We also ask for the smallest dose. I believe Pentasa comes in 250 and 500 and the size difference is significant, so we'd always ask the pharmacy for the 250's even tho it meant more pills. Same with pred... we always got the 5mg size, which worked slick for tapering also.

 

[greypup]

We practiced w/tic tacs. Also placing the pill on a teaspoon of applesauce makes it slide down easily.

 

[Jmrogers4]

My son does them with milk as well

 

[Brian'sMom]

My son would take a big drink and hold it in his mouth. Tilt his head back and slip the pill in. Then swallow with his head still tilted back. (I myself like to put the pill in my mouth and then take a drink.. my son doesn't like to taste even the pill coating-so that's why he does it the other way around!)
I have also heard of the tic tac method. The pill is so much smaller than a chunk of food that we swallow. So its a mental thing I think. And some pills, ie prednisone, flagyl, etc, taste really bad. The Pentasa are big... but so smooth.

 

[CrohnsKidMom]

After a couple weeks of crushing pills and putting them into spoonfuls of yogurt, both my son and I tired of this method. I just got him to take a drink of juice or milk to wet his mouth, quickly put the pill on the back of the tongue, then wash it down with another big drink.

 

[AZMOM]

We practiced with mini m&ms. I'm pretty sure Mommy needed chocolate too! Claire was 3 at the time!!

J.

 

[CDJ]

I started by crushing the pills [ pentasa here is a large tablet, not capsule ]. We graduated to slicing them into tiny pieces, then bigger pieces until he was taking one whole pill at a time. It does take time, but you get there in the end.
When he was diagnosed with crohns and I realised the amount of meds he was going to be on I knew we had to do something as it wasn't feasable to have everything in liquid form.

He can now take a handful of tablets and swallow these with no problem at all.

 

[Devynnsmom]

We watched this video http://research4kids.ucalgary.ca/pillswallowing and started with tic tacs and mini m&ms. We planned with the dr to practice for a week and then start her new pills, but she only ended up needing a few days. My daughter takes a mouthful (almond milk or orange juice are her favorites) and then pops the pill in. She doesn't want the pill to touch her tongue at all. She is now up to swallowing THREE pills at a time! She started swallowing pills about 2 years ago. She was watching me take pills a few weeks ago (I throw them all in my mouth) and said "How do you do that?? Aren't you afraid to choke??" I said no, these pills aren't as big as most food I eat. So she tried, and now swallows all hers at once instead of one at a time. Just reassure her she won't choke.. that the pills are much smaller than the food she swallows, and worst comes to worst she can spit it back out. Good luck!