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

Try practising by swallowing baked beans whole. Once you get the hang of that a tablet is much easier.

My 9 year old takes loperamide and gabapentin and it took some time but tic tacs worked eventually. I'd keep on trying.

We cracked this recently with DD15. Put tablet in mouth, take a swig, puff cheeks out, swallow. The extra pressure seems to open the throat up wider. She’s gone from gagging every time to knocking them back very easily,

Use a drinking straw.

I was told recently to drink via a straw, it helps the tablet go straight down no problem! Why has nobody shared this information with me before?

Came on to say try with milk not water, seems others have said the same!

Try with vitamin pills first

This is similar is similar to how I got dd to take tablets she was an absolute nightmare to teach but with liquid already in her mouth then pop the tablet in then drink more water because her mouth was already full she had to swallow what was there and the tablet went with it.
she’s 22 now and could swallow a dry horse pill.

Sorry I should have said in post, she’s autistic with very limited diet 🫣

the tablets are very bitter and not coated

Won’t drink fizzy pop, milk etc, only water! Also won’t eat yoghurt so can’t mix in that 🫣

My son is autistic too. I think it was alder hey hospital that had a leaflet on helping a chikd take tablets ((it had bread and sprinkles as an idea)

Some great ideas here thank you so much everyone!

I had this problem as a kid and teen, and crushed everything into ice cream. I finally cracked it by putting them on my tongue and glugging a whole pint of water. When I tried to take them with some careful sips it just didn't work and they hit the back of my throat and I just gagged. However, by just continuing to glug in massive gulps it got them down. Tic tacs are probably too big to start with, or they would have been for me anyway. I reckon you need something half that size and smooth to practice. Almost like a very small vitamin tablet. Good luck. I do remember the horror of it and feeling convinced I would choke.

Fizzy drink! You can’t feel the tablet go down

Ditto but I use milk 😊

A variation on using a straw is using a sports drink bottle, and three good swallows. This is being recommended eg Pill school
(Hope I've managed the link right)

Agree that tictacs are a little big to start with although you've got the right idea to use sweets. Look at cake decorations to find smaller practice sweets - hundreds and thousands, cake sprinkles then bigger ones.

A different suggestion is what my daughter came up with as a child - put the tablet just under the tip of your tongue then take a drink. I tried it and was surprised how much better it worked than my normal technique.

Good luck!

OP will she eat raw carrot? I taught my sons to take tablets by cutting up pieces of raw carrot (which they like) into the exact size of the tablet. If they couldn't swallow they simply chewed until we practiced enough times to swallow it whole and then put the actual tablet in. It's like their throats and minds needed the practice before the real thing.

Just contact the prescriber your child can't swallow and ask for the liquid prescription. There's no need to wait 3 weeks.

There are some resources here. I am fairly sure I’ve seen a short video, maybe from a pharma company, I’ll keep trying to remember for you!

Had the same problem with both dd and they still can take a while taking them. The only think that has worked is tablet then water head back . Sometime they take extra sips and can take them the best part of a Minto actually swallow them. But it's much better then when they started with tablets. Both autistic.
I kept on with tablets as I have seen first hand adults who refuse to take tablets and it causes a lot of hassle . Especially if ever admitted to hospital for anything.
I know one woman who won't take tablets and also makes her dh crush her tablets as she won't even do that for herself. She gets hysterical.

I sympathise. I couldn’t take tablets for years and I had a childhood illness that required me to have a lot. I used to have them in a jam sandwich-
yuk!! It put me off jam for years!

Best trick is to take them with a bottle drink rather than a glass. This helps a lot. Try splitting them into 2 halves if possible.

Also, people tell you to put them at the back of your mouth but I’ve never found this helpful. They’d just end up coming to the front and panicking me. I prefer to just sit them near the tip of my tongue and then drink from a bottle. They just seem to go down easily that way.

I can now swallow pretty big tablets but if you’d known me as a child you’d never have thought I’d get to this stage.

A spoonful of yogurt, custard, trifle etc to help swallow them works for most kids

Water or (thicker drink preferably) in your mouth first, then pop tablet in then another sip then swallow. Start off with milkshake or the like, it’ll be hidden in that well.

That's wrong.. you can't take with milk.. protein effects them.

Will she use a straw? When my (ND) son was 3, he had to take slow release melatonin, only comes in tablet form. We tried everything, what worked for us was putting the tablet in his mouth, then making him drink from a straw in big mouthfuls. He's 20 now and still takes tablets with a straw.