DS injured his mouth at school. Any advice re getting him...

[snowgirl29]

... To swallow his pain meds and soft food.

Short background. Ds is 7, He was playing at playtime with his friends yesterday when he tripped. He was laughing at the time so fell with his mouth open and landed straight on to his teeth . School asked us to pick him up as they were quite concerned there was a lot of blood. We got him in with the emergency dentist who said thankfully it is only one tooth really affected, a baby tooth and it should fall out by itself pretty quickly (she said this about another tooth at a checkup once and it took a couple of weeks to fall out in the end); and advised to keep him on a soft diet for the next few days whilst all the swelling goes down.

However, he's dribbling quite a bit as he's not swallowing his saliva because of the pain. Cant get water or his Calpol down him either as he just keeps saying he can't swallow. I've tried the syringes, straws etc, just wondering what else I could try that I probably haven't thought of.

I know this will sound a bit brutal but when ds was a baby and wouldn't take medicine he needed the nurse advised me to gently squeeze his cheeks so he made a sort of fish face while I syringed the medicine in. It sets off the natural reflex to swallow and worked every single time - he never dribbled any!

Obviously this will depend somewhat for your ds on where his sore teeth are but if they're at the front rather than the side it might be worth a try on the calpol front. Once he's in less pain I'd imagine it would be much easier to get food down him.

Hope he is doing better soon OP.

Thankyou cakedoesntjudge (love your mumsnet name! fellow cake fan here ).

The tooth is one of his front ones, but right to the side if that makes sense?

I'm not sure why the dentist couldn't have just taken it out but a number of people have wisely told me they'd probably have to wait for the swelling to go down anyway.

Won't directly help with the pain meds but would he suck an ice lolly? my DD bashed her mouth badly as a toddler (put her teeth right through her lip) and an ice lolly soothes the pain and swelling and is a bit of a treat so that might get him swallowing. You might then be able to syringe the capol into his mouth.

I'm just wondering what exactly is hurting him? If the teeth affected and the swelling are at the front, I'm surprised it hurts to swallow.

It might be that there is a lot more swelling than just at the front, or that the whole thing has just made his mouth an unpleasant place and every associated with it feels wrong - but I think I might want to check there's nothing going on further back if his swallow is affected.

Ice lolly a good idea too though.

I wouldn't worry about the calpol. You tell him it should help take the pain away so it is his choice whether he takes it or not. If he really won't drink anything you need to probably talk to the GP before he gets dehydrated.

Thankyou for your replies everyone.

Freezerbird we got him straight in with the dentist yesterday and she did check everywhere. He had a tooth that was protruding out a little (his adult one is coming through behind and pushing it out), and it is that tooth he's effectively knocked back into place. He just keeps saying his tooth keeps hurting but the whole right side of his mouth is rather swollen. So I'm assuming from what the dentist said. It's swollen inside too. Poor soul has a right fat lip.

Thankyou for the ice lolly tip Absinthe9 I will try and cajole him into eating one.

Witchend I'm getting bits down him but anything that touches that tooth or the swollen area is making him refuse to drink / eat anymore. I will see how he goes this afternoon and get him in with the GP if he's not drank (sp?) anymore.