Tips On Getting Kids To Swallow Pills

Trying to get children to swallow pill form medicines can be a very challenging thing to do. Distributing a pill to a child may sometimes get to feel like a job in itself every time that you have to do so. Oh No!!! they are sick again, and i can never get my child to swallow the pills they need to take to get better. What can I do? Well this article may help you with some ideas on how to get your child to take their pills. Using some of the ways that I will be going over with you your child will never even know they have already taken their pills.

Tips On Getting Kids To Swallow Pills

If you are not careful when you are trying to trick your child in to taking their pills they may catch you and fight just that much harder not to take them. If at all possible you are going to want to make sure the child is totally distracted. I am going to tell you a few different things that I personally found to work for my children.

• crush them up into a food the child likes.You will want to ask the physician or pharmacist before doing this. There are pills out there that are not able to be crushed up. If they can be then crush up the pill in to something you know the child will eat and like. It is easier to give them something soft like pudding, apple sauce, yogurt or whatever else you can think of.

• Crushing it and putting it in ice cream with chocolate syrup works really well. The chocolate syrup will mask the bad taste from the pill or you can use any other topping that you want.
• You can crush the pill and mix it into a jelly that they like then make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for them.
• Crush the pill up and sprinkle it into a beverage the child is drinking.
• Stick the entire pill right in to whatever they may be eating they will not know that it has been stuck inside their foods.
• There is a product that is specifically for this called flavor-x. Ask your pharmacist about this product.It comes in about 40 different flavors. They will take the child's medication and crush it up with this so the child can not taste it. The child can also pick a few different flavors they will like.
• Some places have this product called swallow aid. Which is a gel that is flavored. You place some of this gel on to a spoon and then stick the pill in it as well. This product has something in it that will stimulate the child's saliva production and this will give the throat extra lubricant. This product also has something in it that will mask the bad taste from the pill. Just place the pill inside the gel on the spoon and let the child eat it.
• If the child is still refusing these methods you can always go with using a syringe. Ask your child's doctor if their medications come in liquid form, and if they do not you can crush it up into whatever the child likes then suck it up into a syringe and squeeze it in to their mouth.
• You can see if their medications can come in a chewable pill and let them chew it up
• You can try teaching the child to swallow pills by getting small m&ms and seeing if they can swallow them first, of course making a game out of it. If they can do this you can go to the pharmacist or health food store and get empty gel capsules and place the mmedication inside and have the child swallow it just as they did with the m&ms.
• Crush pill and put into a gel capsule. Then dip it into something that the child likes a lot. Have them then place in into their mouth and do a 3 count. Tell them you want to see how much of a big kid they are now and let them swallow the pill. You may want to try and tell them that if they can do this for 3 days they will get a special big boy or girl surprise. Let them pick the surprise.
• You can go the old fashion route to by holding their nose than placing the pill in their mouth. You just continue to hold their nose until the pill is swallowed.

Why do children give such a hard time taking pills

This was just a small portion of different things that you can try with your child. You may have some different ideas that I have not mentioned. Taking pills may be very easy for some children. Where others think it is the end of the world and they are going to do everything in their power to not go near that pill. Just be creative and use things you know they cannot resist. One other very important thing that I didn't mention above is if you have other children in the home please make sure the child has finished all of the medication in front of you or another adult before they go and play. If it is a food or drink make them sit at the table or some where you can monitor them with it. You do not want any of the other children to go grabbing for what they have and harm themselves.

One other thing is that you always want to explain to the child that what they are taking is not candy. Many parents try the calling medicine candy so it may make the child want it. But it may also make the child try to find the bottle by themselves and eat it all. That may cause your child a great deal of harm. Try and be as honest with them about medications as you can be. Telling them that it is candy will only make them want it. This can be a great thing that there is no fight with medicine but it is not a good idea that because they child could try and take it as they please.

Children will give you a hard time with medicines for many reasons. The taste is the number one reason children do not want take it. They may not like the way it makes them feel afterward. Swallowing a pill may just be a very difficult thing for a child to do. Sometimes when they try and swallow a pill it may make them feel as though they are going to throw up or it may even make them throw up. No child likes that feeling. There are dozens of other reasons children do not like to take pills. If you are patient and understanding your child will be taking pills by their self in no time.