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

[Newyearnewmewoooop]

DD been prescribed sertraline for extreme anxiety. She just can’t get the hang of taking tablets and is having to chew them 🥴

We have practiced with tic tacs, but no joy. Tried putting in Nutella, hiding in grapes, no success

Does anyone have any advice 🙏

Im going to ask for it to be prescribed in liquid form next prescription, but that’s 3 weeks away

Put them in slices of banana

Are they hard like solid ones or ones that are like plastic on the outside?

Put on tongue, small sip and either tip head back or weirdly what works is put your chin to your chest and you swallow it 🤷‍♀️

I can sympathise, all 3 of my kids need to take thyroxine and my eldest is ND and it took an hour every morning for the first week. Takes it no bother now though.

Take a big swig of fizzy pop/squash, and tip your head back so the pop is held in your mouth, open mouth, drop tablet in and immediately gulp. I'm rubbish at tablets and still take them this way in my 40s.

Can they be chewed/crushed? I know some tablets say they can't. My mum used to crush paracetamol on a teaspoon then cover it in sugar so we could swallow it. Or try taking it with yogurt as its thicker and makes things easier to swallow.

I've always struggled with tablets.
I was advised by a nurse to take them with milk, because it's "thicker" iyswim, than water/squash.
I wouldn't take them with anything fizzy. Sometime carbonated drinks react with the tablet and it's really unpleasant.
Fingers crossed that with a little practice she'll be fine.

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

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.

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 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.

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 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/

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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