Hi everyone,

I have tried everything to get my 8 yr old to swallow a pill.

She is now taking concerta, psychologist thinks she has add/adhd with anxiety.

So the pill will help with her fears but she's too afraid to take it.
She can't chew it since it's time release.

It took her 2 hours yesterday and 4 hours today.
We've tried putting it in a ball of bread, we've tried swallowing tic tacs, we've tried coating it with honey, nutella.. no luck.

She is a very anxious child , she's been on ritalin, risperidol nothing has worked.

I'm hoping that someone has any tips... i'm desperate!!
She has to see psychologist in 30 days and she's only been given 30 pills so i can't start her in a week from now when she's comfortable swallowing candies etc.

Thanks
Cindy

try smooth thick foods like applesauce or pudding. stirred up ice cream works wonders. if she eats some first..her throat will kinda froze/numb.

honey and peanut butter already stick in throats.

you want something she is used to eating that thickly glides. eat a spoonful..and right away the pill with another spoonful.

lil'monkey learned to take a homeopathic allergy pill this way when she was 6. she was a kid who chewed and chewed her food cuz she always thought if she didn't she would choke.

when my son was younger the only way he could take pills was to swallow them with liquid coming thru a straw

I've tried tapioca pudding her favorite, we've tried drinking out of a straw also.


This pill is supposed to help the little one with her anxiety but she's too afraid to swallow it.... i feel so badly for her.... she needs this... with any luck we can send her back to school and she can be with her classmates...

She is a scared little girl who has panic attacks, shakes and is very fearful of things ... not to mention the meltdowns ..

Thanks for the tips, maybe we'll try ice cream next.

when i was little my mom would smoosh the pill between 2 spoons take the powder and add sugar put on spoon and id take pill like that.
just seen this before i signed off for night. best of luck.

This was a suggestion I heard from other mothers but have not yet tried it myself. They said to get a child used to swallowing a pill is to have the child swallow a tiny M&M whole, then have them swallow a regular M&M whole. It's supposed to help them get over the fear of swallowing a pill.

I remember when I was a kid, my Dad got it into his head that my Brother and I should be taking cod liver oil pills Those things were like HORSE PILLS I could never get them down and I'd end up biting it and they tasted GROSS which totally turned me off of taking ANY pills for the longest time.

Here's some things that I've learned over the years:

(1) This one works the best for me: take a small mouthful of cold water and swallow it. Then take another mouthful of cold water, hold it in your mouth, pop the pill in there too and then swallow both the mouthful of water and the pill. Seems like the first mouthful sort of lubricates everything and the second mouthful washes it over the waterfall.

(2) When my Mom was in the hospital, she could NOT swallow pills. She was dehydrated. She was afraid. And she had never taken pills before. I made up a batch of boiled egg custard (a Southern recipe -- chilled egg custard made in a double boiler). The custard tasted good and lubricated things so that the pills would go down.

(3) NEVER-EVER not mention to someone that you are putting pills in their food. ALWAYS-ALWAYS tell them. They will not trust you otherwise.

(4) Another good way (for kids) is to put a small spoonful of chocolate ice cream syrup in a small dish or a small cup, put the pill in there (open if you can; unopened if you can't), then give her a spoonful of the chocolate syrup with the pill in it. Should go right down.

(5) The pharmacy has syrups that make medications taste better. You might ask the pharmacy if they can compound the medication into a liquid form that can be flavored with one of these flavorings.

Try to involve your daughter in taking care of her own health. Give her some choices. Tell her that friends have given you some suggestions for making pills easier to take. Mention some of them and ask her which one she wants to try. Maybe you could make up a list of all the different suggestions and get her to check off the ones that she DOESN'T like -- then let her choose from what's left. Sadly, when kids have a medical condition that makes them different from others kids, some kids try to not cooperate because, realistically, it's of the few things that she has control over. Giving her a choice about how she wants to do it gives her back some of that control.

Good luck. Hugs.

Barb