Anyone managed to teach their child to swallow tablets?!

[Quokkafeet]

11 year old has been prescribed a 3 month course of antibiotics but they come in hard capsules and we cannot get her to swallow them. She is trying but continues to choke on either the tablet or the water. Any tips?! I just sort of assumed at her age she would be able to do it but it seems not!

You can ask for them in liquid form.

My son couldn't do it right up until he was 15. The only way we managed to get him to do it was make him take them with really really thick milkshake.

I had hoped for this, but apparently this particular antibiotic doesn't come in liquid form.

We practiced with tic tacs. Taught DD to pop them as far back on her tongue as she could, then take a moderate sized mouthful of water (too small and it won't go down, too big and it sometimes gets stuck).

DD had a particularly horrible tasting liquid antibiotic so she was very motivated to learn to take tablets so there wouldn't be a next time!!

Oh interesting, so swallowed the tablet down with the milkshake?

Right. Off to buy tictacs tomorrow!

Tell her to put the tablet in her mouth, take a big mouthful of water and then put her head down to swallow. Not back. Forwards so her chin goes towards her chest and its easier to swallow the pill without extra effort.

Yes. I'm talking really thick, basically sludge consistency. It was the only thing that worked and we had tried the tic tac trick as well.

Thinking of the milkshake comment - I wonder if it would work tucked in a spoonful of thick yogurt or mashed potato?

I found it difficult at that age. Mum kept telling me to pretend it wasn't there and to just swallow the water and it would go down. That didn't work at all, it helped much more to actively think it was there and to deliberately swallow it as if it was food not liquid

We did it relatively quickly with DS though actually it was the school SENCO, we'd been pussyfooting around with jam and rewards and she just said "here you go" and he took it. So we copied her.
But he has to take tablets every day and has been since he was 7. Some of them were enormous. He's 14 now.
But with DD we haven't really pushed it as she only needs the occasional paracetamol, however we did practice for a bit with tictacs and that has helped.
We also got her to put in water, keep it in in her mouth and then the tablet. She can now do paracetamol but finds it easier split into 2. She's 12.

Tic tacs. Don't worry about technique. You're just getting her used to having a solid and a liquid in her mouth at the same time. Get her to swallow the tic tac, even if it dissolves a bit first. Then do it over and over again. She'll soon work out how to get it to the back of her mouth, but she won't have the anxiety of a horrible taste if it didn't work.

If it's not working, you can put them in a blob of jam, a bit of yoghurt, or anything else that's thick.

That seems really counterintuitive to me but I will absolutely try it! Water definitely isn't working so we are maybe thinking about it the wrong way. I'm not sure we can buy 3 months worth of milkshakes but maybe it will get her going!

hopefully this link will work. There’s a training video here which is endorsed by the royal college of paediatrics
Basically start with tiny sweet - hundred and thousands, then move up to tic tac or even smaller.

Good luck!

Dd1 "trained" with small sweets. We had to cut then very very small to start with (1/4of a tic tac size) the day she managed to swallow an m&m was celebrated, but she did learn we just had to take baby steps and practise a lot

This is all brilliant advice, thank you all so much ☺️

Tic tacs is a great idea but we also used baked beans- swallowing them whole.

Here are some methods.

I used ‘The bottle method ’ with my kids.

www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/05/Guide-to-swallowing-tablets-2025.pdf

It's mostly psychological I think so once DS realized he was perfectly capable of swallowing the pills with the milkshake it didn't take him long to move on to thinner liquids.

I worked in a nursing home and they would thicken drinks with a special powder designed for this so people could take tablets if they had trouble swallowing, when a liquid is thicker your throat adapts automatically allowing you to swallow the tablet along with the thickened liquid easily. You can use smoothie, yoghurt, custard, etc, even just a slightly thicker liquid like milk or orange juice is easier.

we also used the tic tac method! Worked a treat!

Yogurt. Spoonful of yogurt, have 2 or 3 "practice" spoons, so in and swallow it straight down. Then add the tablet the right way on a spoon of yogurt, in and swallow straight down again.

I would ask a pharmacist or check the BFN. Lots of people can’t take tablets, often for medical reasons, so there is usually something different to try.

Which antibiotic? Some come in dispersible tablets too.

Dd1 is 15 and just about manages tablets paracetamol size or smaller. I struggle with capsules myself I find them really hard to swallow as they float around in the water.

I think its worth persevering, as its a good skill to have.