Getting Medication In: please share your tips, tricks, secrets

[Anonymous]

We recently started some medication for our 6 year old DS. Trying to get him to take it has been a challenge to say the least and the types of foods he eats aren't really amenable to being tampered with to include the medicine. We're working on expanding the types of foods he eats, but so far he's not an apple sauce, peanut butter, or pudding type of kind. We've also just asked him to swallow a capsule, but that has been very difficult. I'd welcome any thoughts you have on this. We've had some luck sneaking it into candy, but that has worked only occasionally. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

is it liquid?

We used a "medicine injector" that looks like a big hypodermic needle (but without the needle of course) or plunger.

It allows you to put it way back in your child's throat. Our kids actually preferred it, in that it bypassed the tastebuds entirely! Plus it's over really quickly because you push the plunger and it's past the tongue and swallowed before you know it.

We got one from our pediatrician.

[Anonymous]

OP, does he eat yogurt? You can put the pill in a spoonful of yogurt (whole pill, or crush it in the spoonful). My 7 yr old DS now takes pills this way.

[Anonymous]

OP, here. Thanks for the tips so far. One medication is part of a tablet and the other is in capsule form. We can open the capsule and do something with the contents if we could figure out what.

I like the medicine injector idea, but the pharmacy can't put the medication in a liquid/suspension. We checked. The appeal there is getting it in fast, of course.

I wish he ate yogurt, but he doesn't so far. It's becoming very apparent to me how limited his diet is. That's yet another thing we need to work on.

[Anonymous]

Hi, OP, I'm so sorry you have to deal with this! My only suggestion is to grind it up and put it in milk or chocolate milk. You can also mix it with ice cream and refreeze, but I know that's not very practical.

As the mom of a child who won't let anything near her mouth (pills or most food/drink), I totally understand how frustrating it is.

[Anonymous]

11:35 again. I was also going to suggest chocolate milk. Ice cream seems like a good idea as well. Can you list what your child does eat and maybe we can help you come up with some type of solution?

[Anonymous]

My son was difficult too. I finally found something that works without a fight. We sprinkle the medicine from the capsule on top of orange sherbet.

[Anonymous]

We do applesauce, which DD doesn't like, and reward her with a small spoonful of ice cream--that somehow makes it tolerable to her.

[Anonymous]

My 6 y.o. recently learned to swallow a capsule. He's a very picky eater and we couldn't get him to take liquid meds at all. We finally let him try to swallow a capsule with Coca Cola, which he loves but we really try to limit. So, he associates taking his medicine with getting to drink a Coke.

[Anonymous]

Before you crush anything, please make sure with dr or pharmacy that it is a pill that can be crushed -- certain of the extended release pills can't be crushed. In any event, at our house, one child prefers apple sauce and one prefers ice cream. I just hide the pill inside a small spoonful of each and they swallow. With respect to liquids, someone told me that there is a compounding pharmacy in Rockville (near the JCC) and that they can make these stimulants in liquid form. I don't know the name of the pharmacy, sorry. Good luck - it is tough.

[Anonymous]

For the tablet I would recommend a mortar and pestle. Mine is marble and works great for pulverizing DS's pill, which we put it in his juice.

[Anonymous]

whipped cream. put some whipped cream on a spoon. sprinkle crushed pill and opened capsule on top. put another line of whipped cream on top. feed. if the child can taste the medicine, reward with something sweet and small, like a gummy or chocolate chip.

[Anonymous]

What kind of candy does he like? That might give me some ideas.

If taste is an issue, chocolate is the best masking agent. Mix on a spoon of Hershey's syrup or give an m&m before and after. My child had to me on really gross meds for MRSA twice and the ped gave the chocolate advice.

[Anonymous]

My DS is incredibly picky and has some anxiety. I thought teaching him to swallow pills would be really difficult but it was actually pretty easy. He was 6 at the time and we startd with Nerds - you know, the candy. In one box, the candies range in size from a grain of sand to about the size of tic tac. Starting with the smallest one, and incentivizing it by letting him drink it with 7 Up, he started to practice swallowing them. We also let him eat a bunch of Nerds afterwards. It worked really well for us and he's now a champion pill swallower. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised no one has suggestion the medication cup. Google it (not sure what its called). Its a cup with a little lip for the medication, designed to make it go right down with fluid. Worked very quickly for both my kids, including my DS with an ASD.

DO NOT GRIND OPEN OR CRUSH THE MEDS, unless your doctor tells you that you can. Don't even rely on teh pharmacist. This is an incredibly important safety issue and will mess with how quickly the meds enter your DCs bloodstream. Many times its fine, but you really, really can't just assume you can do this.