Fear of choking on pills

[Rosebud2005]

Hi do any of you have a teen with a fear of taking pills? At different times ds has has stuff to take but he won’t. What’s best to reassure him so he relaxes?

My partner has this issue.
I don’t have much advice sorry, as it takes him about one hour (not joking) to swallow a tablet.
The NHS has an advice page on this if you haven’t read it already.
Sorry, not much advice but watching with interest.
We usually just cut them up as a last result but I know you can’t do this with all meds.

Thank you x

I had a pill stuck in my throat as a teen and it made it hard mentally to take pills after that. My routine for pills now is to snap it in half if possible, take a sip of my drink and hold the liquid in my mouth, pop the pill in and throw my head back to swallow, taking a big drink afterwards. Hope it helps.

Some meds can be available in liquid form. You have to fight to get them though.

Young children can be taught to swallow pills by practicing on cut up gummy sweets.

I have always had trouble taking tablets, I find if I chew some food I can 'wrap' the pill inside it just when it's ready to swallow and get it down that way. Sounds mad because the food is bigger then the tablet but it works for me.

Get liquid if possible. It’s not worth it.

Practice on mini smarties

Or tic tacs. You can buy pill cutters at the chemist - quite cheap, but obviously don't work for capsules. Some capsules you can open up.

Just get them in liquid form. I hate taking tablets and if things can’t be crushed then I get them in liquid version.

@covidcloser

I have always had trouble taking tablets, I find if I chew some food I can 'wrap' the pill inside it just when it's ready to swallow and get it down that way. Sounds mad because the food is bigger then the tablet but it works for me.

I do this too

Just distracts my mind from 'I'm taking a pill' too 'I just need to swallow this biscuit'

I find it very hard to take tablets as it's like when I have liquid in my mouth I don't understand how to swallow something larger. I can't physically make my mouth muscles do the swallowing action - it's really weird.

I tend to eat something claggy like a piece of bread or a banana, and push the pill (or half of it, if it's big) inside the chewed-up lump and then swallow it quick before my brain can register what's happening.

A friend had hypnosis to help her with this problem, and it worked brilliantly, don’t know if that would be possible for a teenager but might be worth bearing in mind if it remains a problem long-term.

I struggle with pills, i always try to get ones I can cut in half. Then I take them with a little spoonful of jam that I stick the pill in. A mouthful of something squishy like banana works as well. I can’t swallow them with just water.

He won’t take paracetamol or other pain relief other than Calpol. It does say you can take it up to 16 or something but what do we do after that if he needs for example paracetamol?

My son is the same, can't even take an antihistamine which are tiny. Tried everything, he just can't swallow them. I buy soluble paracetamol.

@Rosebud2005

He won’t take paracetamol or other pain relief other than Calpol. It does say you can take it up to 16 or something but what do we do after that if he needs for example paracetamol?

If you’re just talking about over the counter medication like paracetamol and ibuprofen then you can get soluble paracetamol which you dissolve in water, and you can get ibuprofen as “meltlets” which dissolve on the tongue

Use a drinking straw. Take a drink first, then put the tablet towards the back of the tongue and take another (good strong) suck of liquid through the straw. The pill will go down easily. Try it with Tic-Tac to convince your son that it works.

It is just volume of the dose with Calpol. Look at how much paracetamol is in each 2.5ml spoonful and compare that to a paracetamol tablet. I am feeling too lazy to look.

Ds1 struggled and found it easy to eat a spoon of yoghurt, stick the tablet in his mouth, add a spoon of yoghurt and it goes down.

But yes you can get soluble paracetamol and melts. Talk to a pharmacist.

Calpol 6+ fastmelts (melt in the mouth no drink needed and taste of strawberry) are the least unpleasant and most convenient paracetamol in this situation. They're ok for adults but only 250mg so you have to take four. Works out v expensive. There is also calpol 6+ liquid in bottles or satchets, not so convenient. But don't most adults just use soluble paracetamol in this situation?

Adults can take calpol, I've taken it before. It's about 20ml for an adult dose I believe. You just calculate how much is in a spoonful and divide it by 1000mg which is the adult dose.

I once vomited up paracetamol trying to take it when I had a severe UTI and the paramedics said they had to take me to A&E because they couldn't be sure if I'd ingested any but I needed to get my fever down. When I got there I swear I was given calpol (it was orange flavoured!) in a little plastic cup.

Teaspoon of jam (or similar), push tablet into jam, swallow. The only way I could take malaria tablets!

For pain relief nurofen make a tablet that melts on your tongue, they are outrageously expensive for what they are but it's money well spent if it solves a problem. I progressed from them onto caplets- tablets are a struggle and capsules are almost always a no.

I used to find out very difficult to take pills, and then one day I realised that when eating baked beans, I definitely don't chew them all carefully, so I was clearly able to swallow pill-sized objects. I still have to slosh them since my mouth for a while before I can swallow them, but that was, weirdly enough, the turning point.

Easier to swallow tablets if drinking from a sports bottle - gets head in right position, and the suck swallow movement with the mouthpiece helps get the tablet to the back of the mouth.

Best tip I learnt was swallow them with chewed up food. It's something to do with how the brain reacts to swallowing food rather than liquid and is especially good if there's also gagging whilst trying to swallow them. Most people don't gag and choke swallowing food unless they have health issues so popping a tablet in just before you swallow means it goes straight down no problem

DD, 16, still has calpol. You just have to take loads of it. However over the past year or so she has conquered pills and we have just switched her antidepressants from liquid (expensive for NHS) to capsules.
We have worked up from 'the pill' (tiny), via anxiety pill (small) to melatonin (medium) and now anti-Ds (capsules). Haven't tried paracetemol (large) yet.