getting child to swallow tablets

[bridewolf]

my son is 14 and has a infection on his gum, on friday he got a antibiotic prescription from his dentist.

however, he wont swallow it, it took one and half hours to get him to take one. and even then he chewed it first , which is not the correct way to take it.

its now sunday and this infection burst in his mouth, and he swallowed that!
so am now really worried that he is going to get really poorly soon.

plan to go back to dentist on monday morining , but as they are normally pretty busy its going to take some time to get something he can take.

any hints or tips to get him to swallow the pills anyone?

Am I mean? I would say "You are 14 years old, you are not a toddler. Here is your tablet, here is a big glass of water and a slice of bread. Get on with it."

His body will be able to deal with swallowing the gunge - I wouldn't worry about that.

No tips, I'm afraid, but you have my sympathies! I'm 29 and I'm still that bad at swallowing pills! The worst part of DD1's birth for me was swallowing the antacid tablet in case of a csection - took me almost 2 hours to get the damn thing down! Utterly pathetic, 4 and a half years on and I still remember that bit vividly! Had to break it into quarters and it wasn't very big to begin with. Could your son do that with his? You do need to stress to him that since he hs taken the first one, he must finish the course.

If he finds them hard to swallow, make sure he's only using half a glass of water - it's tempting to have a whole glass if you fear it's going to be difficult because "you'll need lots", but with a half glass you have to tip your head back as you glug, rather than sipping from the top. He can have a second half-glass ready if that makes him feel better...

can he swallow them down in a spoon full of jam?

You can learn how to take tablets by chopping up jelly babies, first into teeny pieces then as they get better, bigger and bigger ones.

practice with tic tacs

try placing tablet towards back of tongue - warn him not to tip it forwards/under tongue - and then small amount of water from half filled glass per post above. HTH and sympathies from a fellow pill hater!

The easiest way to do it is to place the tablet behind the front bottom teeth under the tongue and get a big drink of water and just drink it straight down. The way the water travels round the mouth means it just takes the tablet down. It is best not to think about swallowing it and it will go. I read this in my Pharmaceutical Journal once and have tried it with paracetamol and it really does work!

tried cutting the tablet in half, not allowed to be crushed in jam.

he ended up throwing up at one point.

meanwhile his gum 'pops' every so often and more stuff comes out.

he looks dreadful, but isnt complaining about pain.

am going to get the prescription changed, and hope he survives until then.

will try the jelly baby idea, as well.

part of the problem is that he keeps having flashbacks to a occasion when he got a large boiled sweet stuck in his throat, and we had to call the paramedics.

so he has got a bit of block with tablets.

no, not crushed in jam. just with a big blob, to smooth its way down. or even honey?
poor kid, hope it is resolved soon.

have got the liquid stuff.

have given up trying to get him to swallow the tablets, total nightmare.

that's good

i think my mum often has the liquid medication, if ever needed.
you dont have to be a child to have difficulty swallowing tablets.