Swallowing Pills
“My Child cannot swallow pills!”
This is a concern we hear frequently from parents. As children grow, it becomes more difficult to get the proper doses of medication in liquid form. Swallowing pills becomes necessary as some medications also don’t come in liquid form. Sometimes swallowing pills becomes a “battle of wills” between parent and child. Other children have difficulty overcoming a sensitive gag reflex when it comes to swallowing something whole. Here is one approach to overcoming the challenges of swallowing pills in children.
- Learn and practice when your child is feeling well. Everything is harder when you don’t feel well. Wait until they are well and the pressure is “off” to master this new task.
- Celebrate success and minimize lack of success.
- Start small and work big. What does this mean? Here’s an idea:
Start with a small sprinkle, the kind you would put on cupcakes or Christmas cookies. Because these dissolve or melt when they are wet, your child will be successful at “swallowing” these. Have your child put these in their mouth and swallow with a glass of water. Repeat several times. This will hopefully build confidence for moving on.
Grab some “Nerds” the next time you are at the store. Again, these are very small, but a little firmer and less likely to dissolve. Work to swallow these little candies with a glass of water one at a time, work from smaller ones to larger ones. Celebrate the success!
Next up is mini M and M! Again, a little firmer a little larger, but very doable. Make it fun and let your child choose the colors they swallow. Use a small swallow of water. Encourage your child that they can do this!
What’s a little bigger? Tic Tacs! Same process…lots of encouragement…choose the flavor together…a swallow of water and down it goes! You are making progress because once you are at this step, you aren’t that far away from our child being able to swallow an over the counter tylenol or ibuprofen tablet.
Moving on…Smarties! Again, these get a little soft when wet to help them go down. But they are also a bit bigger and again approach the size of a over the counter tylenol or ibuprofen tablet.
Next step…Skittles! Choose the color and practice! If a Skittle goes down, your child can do most medications. If they have to do really large medication (oral Augmentin for example) practicing with a Mike and Ike candy can also be helpful.