ADHD Meds that you don't have to swallow whole?

[Anonymous]

Any suggestion for stimulant ADHD meds that you don't have to swallow in whole pill form? Our doctor prescribed concerta for our son, but he couldn't manage the solid pill. For the last three weeks we've been on Adderall, since we can open the capsule and pour out the inside pieces, but I'm begining to wonder if the Adderall is the cause of some overly aggressive/angry/tantrummy evening behavior that we've seen lately.

We have our parent/teacher conference later this week, and I'm going to ask the teacher how he's doing in school. If the nasty anger is only late at night and at home, and the meds are otherwise working well at school, we can deal with that. If not and he's being angry at school, than I may want to go back to the doc at our next med check and ask for something different so I thought I'd see if there were other non-solid pill options out there.

TIA!

[Anonymous]

We were in a similar situation a while back. I had to open up the capsule and sprinkle it on food, and hope that she got the right dosage and didn't chew it the little white dots of medicine. I wasn't confident that it was working, and DD didn't seem to be making any progress. So, last summer, we bit the bullet and had her learn to swallow a pill. I bought a pill swallowing cup from Oralflo (google it), and that helped initially, but she can do it now even without the special cup. And it's making a difference.

[Anonymous]

PP again. Meant to add that it did seem ridiculous to me that the manufacturers didn't seem to make a liquid version of a drug taken by many small children...

[Anonymous]

The candy "Nerds" are a great way to teach kids to swallow pills. They range in size from very tiny to a bit larger so they can work their way up to progressively larger pieces. It worked for a couple of my friends who tried it.

[Anonymous]

Vynanse

[Anonymous]

DS, 9, started out with Metadate, which we used to sprinkle on applesauce. He pretty quickly learned to swallow pills by putting them in applesauce, yogurt, or ice cream (even whipped cream). He's been swallowing meds since around 7 years old. He just got over his fear and began taking Centrum Pro-Nutrients Omega-3 capsules -- smaller than most fish oil capsules, but still quite large.

[Anonymous]

The evening anger might just the result of rebound as the medication wears off. We deal a little bit with this with our son who is on Focalin. But his teacher has seen unbelievable improvement in him, we are just dealing with it. Some nights are better than others. Tonight wasn't too bad.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks everyone for your suggestions! I'll give the nerds a try and check out the pill cup thing. Our ped suggested we try to practic with tic tacs, but those are just too big and DS can't even get close. We've tried putting the pill in yogurt or applesauce, but he seems to panic when he feels it in his mouth.

Anyway, thanks for getting back to me, it's good to know that there are other options out there.

[Anonymous]

Try having him put the water in his mouth first -- this worked for my DD when she started taking Vyvanse.

[Anonymous]

By vyvanse can be opened and dissolved into water.