AIBU to ask for help with 11 year old having to learn to take tablets?

Came on to say try with milk not water, seems others have said the same!

I was told recently to drink via a straw, it helps the tablet go straight down no problem! Why has nobody shared this information with me before?

Use a drinking straw.

We cracked this recently with DD15. Put tablet in mouth, take a swig, puff cheeks out, swallow. The extra pressure seems to open the throat up wider. She’s gone from gagging every time to knocking them back very easily,

My 9 year old takes loperamide and gabapentin and it took some time but tic tacs worked eventually. I'd keep on trying.

Try practising by swallowing baked beans whole. Once you get the hang of that a tablet is much easier.

Having the same problem either my 13 year old who’s never taken tablets before. Weve been advised to use a sports cap bottle to drink from. More effective apparently. I’ve not tried it yet x x

Chew up something that is sticky like a sandwich or banana, stick tablet into lump of chewed food so it is totally hidden and can't be tasted, swallow food.

Or crush it and mix it with something strong tasting.

It sounds weird but someone once told me 'you swallow bigger bites of food than that tablet' and it got rid of whatever mental block I had. Now i don't need to put it anywhere specific in my mouth/look up/whatever.

Try putting the tablet in to a teaspoon full of jam, and swallowing with a drink of milk. The jam is more 'slippery' than Nutella which is more sticky in texture. Use a smooth jam, not one with seeds or pips like raspberry.

I have to take a handful (9 in the morning, 5 at night) every day, I usually do it in one but sometimes I start gagging, so i chew a mouthful of food and before swallowing, pop some of the pills in and then swallow. The thickness of the food masks the tablets.

I take a lot of tablets.
I have found that the best way is to put the tablet on the front of your tongue and drink some water this is more similar to how we would swallow food.
I have found that the back of the mouth techniques can sometimes make me choke.

Drink some water and swallow. Take in another bit of water, hold in mouth, post tablet through closed lips, swallow. I had years of not being to swallow tablets. My pharmacist told me to make sure my mouth wasn't dry.

Just be careful with chewing sertraline, it can have an anaesthetic effect on the mouth so you could injure your mouth or burn on a hot drink and not realise.

Also to pre-warn you GP may be very reluctant to prescribe sertraline in liquid form as it is a lot more expensive than the tablets. I would speak with the pharmacist about crushing. I know with dementia patients we often crush tablets and give with yoghurt as it makes it easier. Again be careful of the above if doing this.

I crush my son's and put it on food like yogurt. We stopped using the liquid because it had a short shelf life and was unpredictable in how long it took to arrive because it had to be done as a special.

My eldest needed giant tranexamic acid for heavy periods (at 12!) The pharmacist suggested very thick liquids like Greek yoghurt, jam, apple sauce or custard. That way they don't feel it which can make you gag.

Start with small pieces of soft bread. Let child roll the bread into a ball and practice swallowing. Repeat and try bigger bits of bread. The nhs has a good website guide on learning to take tablets with videos.

Most epic gag reflex on the planet here - so sometimes I struggle.

Tactics that sometimes help:

Hold it between front teeth, then take a massive glug of water. Practise downing a glass in two gulps first.

or

Get a mouthful of water. Like properly full ready to do that squirting it out again trick. The push it through lips and swallow the water.

Milk, yoghurt, juice, fizzy drink. Basically anything "thicker" than water.

I used to tip head back and sometimes struggled.
Now I put my head down towards my chest and have better results. However get her to try this video on the NHS website.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/problems-swallowing-pills/

My daughter can’t take tablets either, we have tried and tried. A friend suggested putting it in the mouth with drink and then punching the arm up in the air. It works for me but not for my daughter. We have fluexotine for anxiety prescribed in liquid form.

I still struggle with tablets. I take them with smoothies as they're nice and gloopy and help the things to slip down. I also sing a simple song in my head, a nursery rhyme or something, as a sort of distraction so I don't get that gag reflex. That certainly helps.

Two different techniques are described here https://images.app.goo.gl/E3FUvP1wiNfHoxYM6

Also remind her that the mouthfuls of food she swallows every day are much bigger than the individual tablets - I remember this helped me.

I really struggled with pills, what helped me was taking them with milk. I have a drink if milk, quickly put the tablet in my mouth and more milk in and swallow the milk. If done quickly it goes down without touching anywhere in the mouth and doesn't feel like taking a tablet.

Start with different types of cake sprinkles as they are smaller than a tic tac to build up from.