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.

I’m sorry for your troubles op! Hope your boy is feeling better soon.

calsules - break them open and mix content with jam or nutella (or whatever he likes)

good luck!

Powder up a tablet and mix into chocolate cake

my ds cannot swallow tablets.

We use a plastic picnic shot glass we bought for this purpose and dissolve a soluble paracetamol in it. It’s a quick mouthful and swallow and then he eats something nice afterwards to take the taste away.

im not going to pretend getting to that point was easy but there are non negotiables in life and medicine when needed was one of them for me.

For ibuprofen he has the chewable orange tablets (nurofen) and he’s fine with those 🙄

My mum used to crush them and mix with jam. I don’t remember the taste which probably indicates it wasn’t too horrible. I did learn to swallow tablets as a child though. I cut up jelly babies really small and swallowed them, gradually getting bigger bits until it was tablet sized. Then I knew if I could swallow that I could swallow the tablet.