Getting paracetamol into tricky 8yr old. Tablets?

[NotCompletelyUnfortunateLooking]

I'm desperately looking for ideas on how to get paracetamol into my DS...

DS is 8 and will NOT take Calpol or any medicine. He only drinks water (his choice not mine!). I've tried all the different flavours and types but it's the fact that it's a liquid that is not water, he can't get past it. He is not my first and I like to think I am not a pushover. When he was a baby he was very very resistant, and the last time I managed to manhandle him to get some down him was when he had a raging temp with covid aged two, and he was then sick anyway. Obviously I can have more logical discussions with him now, but we still cannot do it. I live in fear of him getting an ear infection or something and needing antibiotics, which thank god hasn't happened.

Illnesses are thankfully fairly infrequent, but every time he has a fever we have ended up just muscling through. And now he is burning up again and can barely lift his head bless him and I hate that he suffers more than he needs to.

We have tried fastmelts. Still no.

I asked at the pharmacy counter today if there are paracetamol tablets he can have. She produced some cheap ones and said half a tab from 6 years, but "Calpol would be nicer for him y'know" - yeah thanks for that lady and for listening to what I just told you 🙄. But, they are still fairly large in half and incredibly bitter. I don't want to put him off forever by setting him up to fail here.

I know tabs are not ideal, but surely some kids manage? Someone must have produced decent, small, lower dose paracetamol tablets, he can't be the only person for whom they would be useful?! Do they exist?

Any advice or solidarity would be much appreciated.

Because yes of course I have tried that in the past. And no of course I can't manhandle a panicking 8 year old like that now. And because I tried to put the relevant details in the op in the hope that people didn't think I was just ineffectual. And mostly because I'm stressed and grumpy. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude and I shouldn't have posted it.

how does he feel about just taking it straight in tablet form with water.

take a mouthful of water. Tip head back, drop tablet in to mouthful of water. Close mouth and gulp. It's how I do it. My DD switched to tablets around age 9 (and weirdly can now take paracetamol with no water/juice/anythjng).

I have a child like this. From the age of 2 I was having to cut tablets down for him. However he will happily take them with water. Make sure you get the caplet shape - like the link - not the round ones. You can break them in half. Tablet on back of the tongue, big drink and he won't taste it (or if he does or you're worried, a sweet afterwards is a good reward to take the taste away). Good luck!

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/257107498

It may not help but when I was an older child I used to put two polos in my mouth along with a tablet and crunch them all up really quickly to swallow them. Possibly not something he would be comfortable with by the sound of it but it helped me with my fear of taking them

I would think it would be easier to mix liquid calpol into a desert than to try to hide a crushed up tablet.

That might work with toddlers once or twice, but no determined 8 year-old medicine refuser is going to let that happen.

Will he accept nurofen instead?

This is what we do with my DD who struggles with liquid medicine. Makes antibiotics and everything SO much easier

I recommend just teaching him to take half a caplet.

No deception no tricks.

My middle DS utterly refused liquid penicillin at about this age and he was so so poorly. I concealed it in a huge range of stuff but he always knew. I begged and pleaded and said he’d end up in hospital at this rate but he is as stubborn as your son it sounds like. We ended up with penicillin tablets which he took really well after a couple of gos.

Big glass of water, tablet in, put chin slightly down and drink. If you tip your head back it doesn’t work as well.

My ds used to do it himself.

I agree, mix the calpol into something he likes that has a strongish taste. For example a small glass of coca cola. Especially if that's a treat he's not usually allowed often

Should definitely NOT give any aspirin to children under 16yo, unless on Dr's advice!

My ND teenager can’t swallow tablets. He will take soluble paracetamol. It’s not a bad taste. A bit like a Berroca 🤷‍♀️

Sorry if I’ve missed it, but has he actually tried the take-a-tablet-like-a-grownup technique, ie back of tongue and big swig of water? I held out 0 hope for this when we ran out of Calpol, but 9yo surprised me and managed it no problem - and lo, life has become significantly easier.

By 8, he should be able to swallow half a tablet. I lived in Southern Africa as a child and had to take weekly anti malarials from the age of 6 - you get the hang of tablets pretty quickly. Teach him to put the tablet at the back of his tongue and then quickly take a big gulp of water, it should just wash down. You could practice with tic tacs until he gets the hang of it.

The alternative for me was my mother crushed up the tablet into a spoonful of jam. It tasted absolutely vile, so I learned fast.

Break off a bit of a tablet equivalent to a dose for a child his age. Put it in the bowl of a dessert spoon, and put another dessert spoon on top so the pill is squashed. Lean gently on it and move it round a bit (I do this on a wooden cutting board). You will end up with paracetamol dust. Mix it with a spoon of jam or peanut butter or whatever sticky thing he likes. He won’t taste it.

Does he like peanut butter or Nutella? Or something similar, either sweet or savoury? Preferably something quite strong tasting? Spreadable cheese? spoonful of curry sauce? If so, crush the tablets up, mix and let him eat that. It should help to cover up the bitter taste better than yoghurt.

If he's up for trying to take the tablet, I do it another way, rather than pill in mouth followed by water, I take a motuhful of water, tip my head back, throw the tablet in and swallow. I find it doesn't stick then, which it can do the other way round.

Good luck!

I feel your pain and concern!
My 5 year old will not take any type of medicine, hasn't done since 2yo and that involved two of us pinning him down due to a 40c temp. We said never again after that.

We've tried fast melts (with medical advice) and the GP at a loss, prescribed suppositories but we aren't willing to use them.
Our boy chooses to suffer to be honest, unless its antibiotics and we need him to have them the GP has said not to worry, treat the child not the fever and he regularly goes up to 40!

So not much help to be honest we hope he'll take tablets when he's bigger, and I fully imagine we would end up in hospital if he did get an infection but we just hope we won't ever have it happen!
I feel your pain and I hope your DS picks up soon! Keep trying the tablet, even grate it into something strong tasting that he does like. Does he like cheese?

Ice cream with strawberry sauce swirled through? Obvs mix the strawberry sauce with calpol or nurofen liquid, with a higher ratio of strawberry sauce.

Suppository?

I had exactly the same thing with one DC, wouldn’t drink anything except water or milk from age 2 onwards. Absolutely no calpol or any liquid medication. Thankfully they didn’t need anything until age 7 when they started taking tablets. If they can’t do half a paracetamol, crush and mix in a spoon of something like Nutella or melted chocolate. Anything gloopy they like, even cream cheese or peanut butter will work.

I got a pill crusher from Amazon for my dd’s melatonin tablet. Makes it into a powder that I put into half a petite filous

We went through the same with our now 6 year old, we were prescribed suppositories by the DR when he was small because he had a raging temp with an ear infection.
He will now take the full sugar calpol, not the sugar free one, he won’t take ibuprofen or any other meds.
No other suggestions apart from bribing him to take it, depending on if he’s
likely to take a spoon of medicine and then a sweet/chocolate straight after.

Otherwise I would explore suppositories but that might be more traumatic for everyone!

If he feels that ill and isn't prepared to take liquid medicines, he can learn to swallow tablets.

I was taking them from around age 3-4 because I hated liquid medicine with the fire of three suns - I'd seen my mother taking tablets and decided that if I had to do anything, I'd do the same as her. Eventually, as I was a very pragmatic child, I learned that other methods of delivery were more effective.

The easiest paracetamol to swallow is the coated oval shape, he puts the pointy end in first so that the rough edge that has the taste doesn't go straight onto his tongue, three hits of a drink and swallows.

If he gets this now, it'll be so much easier in future, as there won't be all the messing around with grinding stuff up (especially as many medications depend upon a slow release), no suspicion of what could be hidden in a seemingly nice treat, no incredibly bitter effervescent meds, no artificial flavoured, false sugary, sticky melts, no foul fake syrups and no sodding 'banana' flavour - and if it eventually develops into a complete non-reaction to injections or blood tests, his future health will be less likely to be negatively affected in the way that a 'can't do tablets, can't do needles, can't do medicine' adult will be.