On 13 Apr 2003 at 22:49, Sharon wrote: > Oh, and I have a question for you. How did you manage to teach your DD to > swallow pills? Mine still can't. > We'd been opening up the pill and giving it to her in some cod liver oil, > which I am sure reduced the effectiveness of it, but it was the only way she > could actually gag > down the powder. Poor thing. > Sharon
Here's something that worked for my sons, though it's been many years ago now... Applesauce... just sink the pill (intact) in some on a spoon, and have the child swallow it as though the pill wasn't even there. Let the child practice until they are comfortable with the method using small candies in place of the pills (I think you said you had to restrict you dd's sugar... but there must be something you could substitute for the candy...). I used little cinnamon 'red hots'- they're small, and if the child messes up and bites into them they know it, but the taste is okay- actually, it even goes well with the applesauce. This lets the child get comfortable with doing it without the fear of biting into something really nasty tasting. We made a game out of it, eventually adding two or three at a time, keeping 'score' of how many he could swallow without biting into them (within reason, of course... but it eventually made swallowing one lone pill no big deal). We always used applesauce, but other foods would probably work, too... anything that your child likes that just sort of slides on down without needing to be chewed ought to do the trick. If you'd rather avoid sugar, maybe even some very soft, mashed potatoes (or other vegetable), using a green pea for the 'pill', or something like that? It's not absolutely necessary, but my sons also liked having a drink in hand as a chaser- just in case- especially at first... and I figured anything that instilled confidence counted. (And many medications should be taken with several ounces of liquid, anyway... plus I think it may have helped them to make the transition to taking meds with just water later.) My older son though, after becoming a whiz-kid at knocking down 'red hots', on his first run with a real tablet, panicked, bit right into it, and tried to chew it. Only once though... that experience made him so sure he didn't want to do *that* again, that he was a true believer ever after. Hope this helps... =================='leigh -- "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us"... Ralph Waldo Emerson -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
