Help! Dd can’t swallow tablets..

[toadstool32]

As in, at all. Even calpol has to be meltlets. Antibiotics always liquid only. She’s 15.

Now she’s been prescribed roaccutane (no negative replies, please) and it absolutely cannot be cut, crushed, chewed or emptied.

Dd is desperate to get going with the treatment but the anxiety of swallowing a tablet is giving her immense fear.

I’ve bought straws to try drinking it down with. Any other suggestions? The tablets are imo quite large.

Is she tipping her head back with the liquid and pill?

Practice with tictacs

Can you take it with food? Chew up something tasty, shove the tablet in the middle of it, swallow

Put it on a dessert spoon of yogurt, goes down easily.

I can't swallow tablets with thin liquid like water or squash but I can with a thicker one like yoghurt or smoothie, has she tried that? I read somewhere it helps the swallowing reflex

Sit relaxed, have glass of milk or other drink ready (cold and non fizzy). Tip head back, tictac in, swallow quickly and drink milk quickly, hesitating will make her feel worse

Taking the accompanying drink from a sports bottle helps with getting the head position and mouth movements right.

I saw a video of a doctor demonstrating the easiest way to swallow tablets for people with autism and sensory issues. Apparently it's best to tuck your chin to your chest as you swallow because you're much less likely to feel the pill touching the sides as it goes down. Worth a shot?

DD couldn’t swallow tablets until she was around 16. Relied on Calpol & Nurofen for far too long…! She was forced to learn as she had to undergo major spinal surgery - with the sheer amount of medication she was on there was no way she’d have been able to stomach liquid versions, nor would it have been practical.

What worked for her (advised by the hospital play therapist) was practicing with TicTacs or Smarties. Place tablet in mouth, underneath tongue. Use a straw or sports bottle to squirt water/juice etc into the mouth, tip head down (this sends the tablet to the back of the throat) and swallow. DD went from being unable to take a basic paracetamol tablet to swallowing multiple massive ones at once in a matter of days. If they have to learn then they honestly can and will x

has She tried putting the water in mouth first then tablet and knocking it back? That way the gross dry tablet doesn’t even touch the tongue

Teaspoon of raspberry jam, push pill into it, whole thing down in one?

Or some food that chews up to go soggy (like bread), take a big bite, chew it all up to the point of being just about to swallow, put pill into mouth and swallow. This is what I do as an adult who cannot swallow pills with water.

Practice these with smaller things (smints, smarties, raisins etc) if she needs to build up to bigger ones.

I'm not good with tablets and find that swallowing them with food works best.

interestingly, we were recently advised by an oncologist to not tip the head back as that narrows the throat. He told us to look at the floor when swallowing. Keeps the throat more open and slips down.

i had this. The tactic that worked for me is fill my mouth with water and hold it, slip the tablet in so it just sits in the water and doesn’t touch my tongue and then swallow the water (with tablet!)

Throw tablet to back of throat and then use a thick straw/sports bottle with straw to swallow it.

I was also late to learn swallowing tablets. My personal technique was to place them as far back on your tongue as possible. The swallow then just happens by itself.

Mouth full of liquid, pop tablet in, head down as this naturally makes the tablet float to the back of the throat then swallow. I’ve managed to get my tablet avoidant 12 year old to do it with this method.

Some interesting ideas here…

The yoghurt thing - do you mean swallowing the tablet whole with yoghurt? Surely that makes it harder because it’s thicker to go down?

Will try chin down rather than head back!!

Putting it in a thick food stops the pill being felt in the mouth so much. The issue with swallowing pills is almost certainly psychological unless she has an issue with swallowing foods. For me it’s totally psychological, I know it’s silly, I know I swallow food that is bigger than a pill, but I still can’t do it. But I can in yoghurt, smoothie, jam, chewed up food.

I've literally name changed for this because my solution is pretty unique I think.

Have a packet of Starbursts in your medicine drawer. You squish it and flatten it out and coat the tablets (one Starburst will do 2x paracetamol and 2 Ibuprofen). They slide down without water ,(but obviously she can drink if needs be) and you never taste the tablet. With chalky ones you need to take care not to get residue on your fingers on the outside, but being careful, even the large chalky ones go down fine.

I've been using this technique for about 20 years. It's like the bread trick but with less spit!

https://northyorkshireccg.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/swallowing-tablets-leaflet.pdf

I have a hard time swallowing pills and I've found taking them with a fizzy drink helps me. Something to do with the bubbles helping mask or something, I'm not sure but it definitely helped when I was taking malarone every day 😬

Tablet drink and chin down definitely works. This was for a child where the tablet would get stuck in teeth, tongue, everywhere but go down. (Don't ask how a tablet can get stuck in your tongue, I don't know either). It was like a miracle when the tablet went down first go with this method.

Whole tablet with yoghurt. Done in seconds. Tell her it’s mind over matter.

Yeah defo try this. If you can swallow food you can defo swallow tablets they r always smaller then mouthfuls of food. It’s like a mental block ppl think they can’t swallow tablets