Son can't swallow tablets?

[putonyourwarpaint]

My son has been put on daily tablet form medication. I told the doctor that he can't swallow tablets but he said it's ok to crush them and put in food.
We've been trying yoghurt but he can still taste the medication and is reluctant to eat it.

Does anyone have any advice?
We have tried many many times to get him to swallow a tablet. He doesn't seem to be able to get it. He seems to have a need to move the food/drink around his mouth first before swallowing (he is autistic so I think this is a sensory thing).

He wants to do it so no amount of bribery will work as it's simply a physical issue.

I have always advised parents to use a fizzy drink. All have come back claiming it’s a miracle!

Came to say the same thing, I saw it on a Facebook video of all things.
Where I work we've actually been able to teach some of the autistic adults that would never take tablet medication to accept it this way. Not all, but we've had a few successes. Even if they swish the liquid around it seems the tablet floats upwards away from the tongue so for some it has helped.

I hope you crack it. My DS was hospitalised last year and when I told the Doctor that I had been relieving my 6 foot 4, bearded 17 year old's fever with Calpol he was rightly appalled. He said, "Madame, he is not a baby he is a fully grown man!"

my dd is 16 and autistic and cannot swallow tablets. In her case there is a reason, but we tried everything growing up.

Now we don't even try. We crush all tablets, mix them in a teaspoon of something thick and sticky with a strong flavour. Dd likes honey. You cannot separate the tablet bits from the honey (peanut butter, nutella, jam) in your mouth in the same way that you can with yoghurt, so it just gets swallowed.

You can crush it between 2 spoons.
And have something tasty to eat immediately afterwards eg chocolate button.

Calpol comes in chewable tablets which we use all the time

Snapping the tablet in half (or into quarters if im really struggling!) first helps too I find, and taking it in two separate halves rather than trying to manage the whole thing in one go... I hide the pieces of tablet in bits of banana, since I find it hides any taste and the texture of food helps to swallow!

DD was 16 before she learnt to swallow tablets.. in the end she absolutely had to as she was in hospital for major spinal surgery and quickly learnt that swallowing one was far easier than contending with awful tasting liquid medication

The method that ended up working for her was place tablet in mouth, under tongue. Quick squirt of water/juice (sports bottle is best) and then tip head downwards before swallowing. This pushes the tablet to the back of the mouth so it goes down easily and without feeling it

We used to put DS's medication in orange juice, it's strong enough to mask the flavour and if he drank it reasonably quickly it wasn't noticeable. Also using a straw helps as it keeps the doctored fluid off the taste buds as well.

I'll bear in mind the other methods suggested by PPs, I haven't had to give DS anything other than paracetamol so far but no doubt the time will come. For paracetamol, he takes Calpol's Fastmelts easily, which is a relief!

In the meantime, we still struggle monthly with the cat's anti-parasite tablets, she is even worse than DS at taking meds and she can detect the ground up tablet in the strongest of fish and can hear an opening vial a room away... 😫

We started my daughter with swallowing nerds with water as the worst that would happen is she had something tasty in her mouth. Once she could do that we moved on to tictacs. Once she could do them she then managed to take her daily tablet and now she can take any tablets no problem. Hope this might help.

I take mine with a bit of banana. It’s slippery so makes it easier to swallow and might not matter if he is moving food round his mouth first as that will make it more slippery.

My ds can't swallow tablets (muscular problems)

His medication can be crushed and it dissolves in coke, fizzy water etc. maybe try this?

We use plastic shot glasses 😂

It wont necessarily help this set of meds, but we used various sized cake sprinkles to build up to swallowing tablets. They come tiny in roundcand strands to some thst are tablet sized to end with. You also dont tip your head back as it makes swallowing harder.

For now chocolate spread on toast, made into a sandwich worked for us.

Just to let you know, dd had terrible trouble taking tablets but had jaw surgery a few years ago. It was the anaesthetist who said her throat was quite narrow. By having her bottom jaw pulled forward, her throat became a normal size and tablets are now no problem.

I’m not suggesting jaw surgery, of course, but I wasn’t aware that a not useful throat size could be a thing.

I use yoghurt with the pill whole. First swallow a spoon of yoghurt so your mouth knows what it's doing, then put the pill in the yoghurt of spoon 2 and stick it in mouth, then follow it with spoon 3 of yoghurt. Just swallow as normal and if you get spoon 3 in quick you don't notice. It's the only way I get pills down (another autistic one) I can't manage chewing something and then lobbing the pill in. But I know that I don't chew yoghurt (don't use lumpy ones with lots of fruit) so I can just lob lots of yoghurt in mouth and I'll swallow it.

You can crush tablets between 2 metal spoons and add to jam or something thick like custard or jelly. Bit by bit move to 1/4 size, then 1/2 size etc.

There is also a 'pill swallowing cup'. I've never needed one, so can't say whether they are any good.
https://www.independence.ltd.uk/daily-living-aids/pilgo-pill-swallowing-cup.htm

I can’t swallow tablets without food.
I wouldn’t crush the tablets as they taste worse like that but instead put them in a teaspoon of something gloopy with a taste he likes such as peanut butter or jam.

My dd, also ASD, could never swallow tablets, but was prescribed iron tablets for a while and learnt to manage them with food. She was recently quite unwell and a doctor in A&E gave her a tablet, assuming she'd be able to take it, and to my amazement she managed it with water. So I'd definitely say it can eventually happen - I'd thought dd was destined to only take liquid paracetemol for life!

At least for us we found that when my DD was feeling rubbish and had no choice but to take tablets (in hospital) she could suddenly miraculously do it. My child who couldn’t swallow a paracetamol for years was suddenly taking multiple horse tranquilliser size painkillers at once with no fuss - part of it is definitely a mental component, she even said herself that if I was to give her tablets those size whilst feeling well there’s no way she’d be able to do it. Definitely a needs must sort of situation

I can’t take tablets on their own either. I take mine with food. Either a banana, rice pudding or full on food. It’s easily done if you put the tablet inside the food and just swallow it.

Crush them and hide in a jam sandwich.