Helping the Medicine Go Down
Success and happiness with medicines is almost always a matter of confidence, not fussing.
Honesty and realistic acknowledgement of any difficulties are important. Sensible rewards, creative strategies, and understanding will help your child master the skill of taking medicines. Kids will often benefit from practising and sharing the activity with their sympathetic but firm and confident parent.
Always check with your pharmacist and paediatrician about the particular medicine and any restrictions, such as not mixing with foods. Some tablets should not be crushed, and some capsules can’t be emptied on food. Within the limits advised by your paediatrician and pharmacist, be creative. Use trickery on your child’s tongue. Be honest, confident, understanding and optimistic with your child’s ability to learn new skills.
Medicines can be yucky.
Parents should be honest and realistic about the unpleasant taste of some medications and that children register the nasty elements of the taste, such as bitterness, more strongly. Some infant formulas, tablets, capsules and liquid medicines do taste yucky; some are truly horrid.
Babies
Babies adapt easily to a new formula, or a prescribed thickener or medication, especially if their parents are calm and confident. Extreme youth is your friend.
Trick the tongue, not the child.
If your child is a toddler, it might be helpful to trick them sometimes by hiding the medication. But it’s generally best to focus on tricking the tongue rather than the child.
Tricks for the yuck factor:
The following suggestions are for tricking the tongue by cutting flavours and using coatings, chasers, cold, bypassing and choice.
Flavours that cut through and overpower the yuck factor: Sweet, acidic, strong flavours such as orange juice and cordials help to mask or overtake the yucky taste. Sometimes strong salty flavours such as vegemite can help. Experiment together.
Bypass the tastebuds: A liquid may be droppered or gently syringed to the side of the mouth or the very back of the tongue. Try putting a tablet or capsule inside a small spoonful of cold ice cream or cream cheese so that the medicine goes down inside something nicer; use thick yoghurt to “carry the medicine down” above and away from the taste buds; use a thick vegemite or chocolate sauce coating for swallowing. Aim to use this trick but not to dissolve the outer layer before it gets to the tummy.
Chasers: A liquid, tablet or capsule could be washed down quickly with a chilled “chaser” of juice or cordial, maybe ice cream or an icy pole. A liquid medicine dose could be swallowed in several portions, each followed by the chaser.
Coldness can numb taste buds. Try eating half an icy pole or ice cream before the medicine and chasing it with the rest. Chasers are even better if cold, even a bit icy. The cold will help number the taste buds on the tongue to minimise the yuck.
Let your child help devise tricks. Invite them to choose the tricks they prefer and maybe even suggest some. It will be a project between you to devise the best solution.
Choose your chaser wisely for tablets and capsules.
Most of us have had the unpleasant experience of a tablet or capsule not going down or feeling stuck halfway. Children can be frightened by this. When you choose a substance to coat or encapsulate the tablet, it needs to be something that is moist, and soft and can slide down and be swallowed easily. Butter, soft cheese, ice cream, yoghurt, icy pole, vegemite, etc, tend to easily go down. Water or juice are easy to swallow. A substance like honey may not be so easy to swallow.
Pill swallowing needs practice.
Some children, especially younger ones, may find swallowing a tablet or capsule difficult or a little scary. To practice swallowing, use small and then bigger amounts of ice cream, then small smooth lollies such as Tictacs or a frozen baby pea or a small smooth piece of ice or a small piece of an icy pole. Show them how you do it. Make it fun. Children may need to learn not to chew before they swallow the tablet.
Reward and encourage your child’s efforts.
Share your tricks. If you come up with a successful trick for the tongue or a swallowing skills strategy, let us know so we can share it with other parents.
Some web pages that may help:
https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Health/Pages/conditions.aspx?hwid=abs2316
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/swallowing-pills.html
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/top-tricks-to-get-your-child-to-take-medicine/