Mommy, The Medicine Woman
Sometimes I feel like this is Emma. Poor girl takes 4 pills in the morning, one at lunch, and 5 at night (not to mention the patch on the bum in the morning and the shot in the arm in the evening). During those times, our kitchen becomes a little lab of crushing, dissolving, mixing, and sprinkling. We do anything to make pill-taking easier on her. But, it’s time to move on. My goal is I need to teach her to swallow pills. I asked her OT about it and she had these suggestions: practice with little candies and use a straw to drink from. It hasn’t worked thus far. She is looking for the m&m in her mouth, and kind of hides it in her cheek. Not because she wants the candy. I think it’s because she is afraid to swallow it. Understandable. My girlfriend, Marshelle, has promised to teach her. Her grandaughter learned to swallow pills when she was 2. And you should see the amount of pills she has to take….much more than Emma. Until that happens, though (she’s in California), I am looking for tips.
Do you have any tips on swallowing pills?
I had to teach my dd to swallow pills when she was about 2 she refused to take any liquid meds and wound up either wearing more than what got in her or just vomiting all ever herself me and anything within reach. We started by having her just swallow the little bean inside of sting beans and once she had that down we moved to peas then to beans, none of these things would hurt her as far and drinking with it we would allow a sippy cup only for medicine the sucking and tilting with the pill/bean on the back of the tounge did the trick.
Jess, have a selection of skittles handy (they are harder than M&M’s but the same size). a glass of water handy and a bell. Have Mason and Emma sit with you at their table. Here are the rules of the game 1: eveyone picks 1 skittle; 2: everyone takes a sip of water; 3: put he skitle in your mouth; 4: take a drink of water; 5: 1st person to swallow the pill wins 1 point and gets to ring the bell. Go to the ,99 cent store and get some little trinkets for both of them an go to town. What worked for Emily was doing the happy silly dance. The one thing that still works is the fact that my girl can not stand it if you dare or bet her that you can do something faster than her. I used that to my advantage.
Man I need to spell check…lol The skittles work because they do not melt as fast in the mouth or in their hands from holding on to it too long…. I pumped Emily up for this and it worked… That being said my child to this day can not handle liquids… we are working on soups and it is not going well…