How to make a child take a pill without chewing. Psychology of a child: how to make him drink medicine? Application of alternative methods

Despite the fact that taking pills is quite a common procedure, it causes serious difficulties for many adults and children. The fear of a gag reflex tightens your throat so much that the pill stubbornly remains in your mouth, waiting for you to spit it out. Fortunately, there are various ways to deal with this problem that will help you relax, overcome the fear of choking on a pill, and allow you to swallow it calmly.

Steps

Taking the tablet with food

Eat a tablet with bread. If you're trying to take a pill and just can't swallow it, try using a piece of bread. Break off a small piece of bread and chew it until it is ready to be swallowed. Before swallowing bread, take a tablet and attach it to the chewed bread in your mouth. Close your mouth and swallow the bread along with the tablet. The tablet should be swallowed without difficulty.

You can also use a bagel slice, cookie or cracker. Their texture is similar enough to bread that it will help you swallow a pill with them.
You can also drink water with bread to help it pass through the esophagus.
Some medicines should be taken on an empty stomach. Check the package leaflet for any instructions to take the medicine on an empty stomach.

Eat a pill with marmalade. To make it easier for yourself to swallow a tablet, you can stick it into a piece of marmalade. Take a piece of marmalade and make a small incision in it. Insert a tablet into the incision. Eat marmalade, but do not chew it. Chewing some tablets changes the time of onset of their action. Just try to swallow the marmalade, and when it is in your throat, quickly wash it down with water.
- You may have difficulty if you find yourself unable to swallow a piece of marmalade. You may need some practice.
- This method is very suitable for children. Disguising the pill with marmalade makes it easier for parents to convince their child to take the medicine.
Lubricate the tablet with honey or peanut butter. The tablets can be taken along with honey or peanut butter, as these foods make it easier for them to pass through the throat. Take a full spoonful of any of these products and place the tablet in the very center of the spoon. Be sure to push the tablet deep into the honey or peanut butter. Then swallow the prepared spoonful of honey or peanut butter along with the tablet. Wash it down with water.
- You should drink water before and after using this method. Honey and peanut butter are quite thick foods and can be swallowed rather slowly. Moistening your throat with water before and after taking them can help you swallow the pill more easily and not choke.
Try eating the tablet with a soft meal. If you cannot swallow a tablet with bread, try eating it with soft foods such as applesauce, yogurt, ice cream, pudding, or jelly. This method is used in hospitals for patients who have difficulty swallowing. Prepare a small plate of food. Eat a little before you are about to swallow the tablet with food. Then eat the tablet with another spoonful of food. The tablet should be swallowed without difficulty with food when you take a sip.
- Do not chew the tablet while doing this.
Practice swallowing tablets on small candies. One of the main reasons that people have difficulty swallowing pills is that the throat rejects the pill and becomes tense. To overcome this, one can practice swallowing small sugary pills to train the throat to swallow whole objects without creating the risk of choking or injury. Take a small dragee, such as mini M&M's. Put it in your mouth like a tablet and swallow it with a sip of water. Repeat the procedure until you get used to the size of the swallowed tablets.

Eat a tangerine tablet. Try swallowing a whole slice of tangerine. After getting used to swallowing the tangerine slices, place the tablet inside the next slice and swallow it. The smooth texture of the surface of the tangerine slice will facilitate the passage of the tablet through the throat and allow it to be swallowed without difficulty.
- Drink a slice of tangerine with water so that it passes through the esophagus better.
Swallowing the tablet with liquid
1. Take the tablet with small sips of water. When you take medicine, you want your throat to be as well moistened as possible for the pill to pass easily through your throat. Take a few small sips of water before taking the pill. Place the tablet at the base of the tongue and then continue to drink water until the tablet is swallowed.
  
  Try the two big sips method. Take a tablet and put it on your tongue. Take a mouthful of water and take a long gulp of the water, but not the pill. Then take another large sip of water along with the tablet. After that, take one normal sip of water to help the pill pass through the esophagus.
  
  Use a cocktail straw. Some people find it easier to swallow a tablet with water or a drink sucked through a straw. Place the tablet on the base of the tongue. Start drinking water or a drink through a straw and swallow the tablet as you do so. Continue drinking after swallowing the tablet to help it pass through the esophagus.
  
  Drink plenty of water before taking the tablet. Some people find that drinking plenty of water before taking the pill makes it easier to swallow. Next, take a mouthful of water. Open your lips slightly and push the tablet into your mouth. Then swallow the water along with the tablet.
  
  Help your child swallow the tablet. Even three-year-olds may need to take pills. At this age, it may be difficult for a child to understand the technique of swallowing a pill, or he may simply be afraid of choking on it. If you find yourself in this situation, try to explain the whole process to your baby. A simple way to give a pill to a child is to ask him to fill his mouth with water and hold it in his mouth while looking at the ceiling. Slip the tablet into the child's mouth through the corner of the lips and wait for it to go down to the throat. After a while, ask the child to swallow water, while the tablet should be swallowed with water.
  - You can also try any other method of swallowing the tablets with food or drink with your child, as long as it is not prohibited by the instructions for the drug.
Application of alternative methods
1. Try using a plastic bottle. Fill a plastic bottle with water. Put the tablet on your tongue. Then wrap your lips around the neck of the bottle. Tilt your head back and drink some water. Keep your lips on the neck of the bottle and suck the water out of it. Water along with the tablet should easily pass through the throat.
  
  Use the head tilt method. When using this method, you should place the tablet on your tongue. Then you need to take water in your mouth, but do not rush to swallow it. First you need to tilt your head forward, pressing your chin to your chest. Let the medicine capsule slide down your throat and then swallow it.
  
  Relax. Anxiety can have a significant impact on the ability to swallow a tablet. It is very important to relax while doing this. If you're nervous, your body tenses up and it becomes harder for you to swallow pills. To prevent this effect, you need to relax. Sit down with a glass of water and do something that will help you reduce your anxiety. Find a quiet place to do this, listen to soothing music, or meditate.
2. Find an alternative to pills. Many drugs are available in various dosage forms. You can buy medicine in liquid form, as a patch, cream, inhalation solution, in the form of rectal suppositories or aerosols, which are tablets dissolved in water. Talk to your doctor about your options, especially if you find it difficult to swallow tablets, regardless of the method used.
  Do not attempt to take the tablet in any other way than the one recommended by your doctor. Do not crush the tablet and do not try to dissolve it, do not try to use the tablet instead of a rectal suppository, unless it is intended for this. Always check with your doctor if you change the way you take a pill.

Being treated is not fun, uninteresting, and sometimes painful and tasteless. If an adult has long been resigned to this, then the child is not yet able to adequately assess the need for medicines. Currently, there are many forms: tablets, and syrups, and candles, and drops, and powders, and injections, and lozenges, medicines can be drunk, sucked, pricked, chewed, rinsed ... But what if the child flatly refuses such treatment? What tricks are you going for? What helps to persuade the baby to take the medicine? We learned about this from the users of Mama.ru.

To our surprise, most mothers manage to negotiate with their children to take this or that not always pleasant medicine. This is the great merit of the diplomat mother, who knows how to correctly present the inevitability of such treatment, and the child himself, who shows remarkable courage and obedience in such difficult moments for him.

Most often, mothers simply explain to the child that they must be patient, otherwise they will not recover.

There is even an opinion that a child is flattered by the fact that he is treated like an adult:

Some children are even proud that they can heal themselves:

Other moms go for little tricks. For example, they tell a story:

Or use your child's favorite games and toys:

If you need to take bitter medicines, then the good old way comes to the rescue:

But remember that it is important not to cross the line - that is, you cannot, having promised a sweet and tasty medicine, give him, on the contrary, a bitter and unpleasant taste. This is pure deception. You undermine the child's confidence in yourself.

There is also a danger in the opposite situation - you give such a delicious sweet medicine that the baby asks for more and more. Moreover, it can become an attractive delicacy, which means that you need to be especially careful to hide it from the ubiquitous child.

Some mothers are saved by a special device - a dispenser for taking medicines. Such a kind of syringe, which is convenient to literally inject the medicine into the child's mouth. A great option for liquid forms: syrups, suspensions, drops, solutions.

Persuasion, unfortunately, most often does not work if the baby needs to drip his nose. And yes, then all mothers in their experience agree on one thing: to hold the baby and drip, not paying attention to resistance.

There is also a completely cardinal method described by one of our users. Yes, indeed, everything is known in comparison ...

Let's give parents a few more tips - what tricks exist.
If the child resists and does not want to drink the medicine in any way, clenching his jaw, lightly pinch his nose, and his mouth will immediately open.
It is very important that all the required amount of medicine gets inside. Therefore, dilute the rest in a spoon or in a measuring cup with water and let the baby drink it.
To slightly reduce the sensitivity of the taste buds on the tongue, rub it with a piece of ice - then the drug will not seem so bitter and tasteless.

To explain to a small child that this bitter pill or nasty drops will help to recover is most often impossible. A sick baby concentrates only on the negative emotion of the present moment, and even the potential improvement is not able to make him take the medicine. That is why you should not waste your energy and look for reasonable arguments. This situation is one of those when it is worth resorting to tricks.

Bitter tablets should be ground to a powder and diluted with sweet berry syrup or jam. If the taste of the drug is acceptable, but for some reason the child does not like it, try to discreetly dilute the drug with his favorite treat: fruit puree, jam, condensed milk, yogurt. If taking the medicine is really important, you can even allow the baby something conditionally forbidden, where the medicine will be mixed.

There is a great way to easily swallow pills. You just need to drink them from a bottle. In this case, the tongue is located in the mouth in such a way that the moment of swallowing becomes easier.

We are trying to negotiate

If your baby is at an age where you can negotiate with him, use this opportunity. Line up your arguments ahead of time. Press on emotions: impressionable children succumb to persuasion much faster. Reassure the child that he is big enough to take medication on his own and without crying. Use the principle of comparison with other children who can easily take a pill. Promise your baby a long-awaited gift for his courage. It may not be entirely pedagogical to do so, but in this case, the health of your son or daughter is at stake.

Remember that most modern medicines for children do not actually have an unpleasant taste and are as easy to use as possible. Stereotypes, fear and unreasonable prejudice - this is what prevents the child from being treated normally with medication.

Teach your child to safely take medications in advance. Talk to your doctor about taking multivitamin courses, give your baby rosehip syrup or other healthy supplements in various forms.

Strength is the last resort

Sometimes a child is at an age when it is still difficult to explain the expediency of taking medications, and it is almost impossible to outwit them. If the health or even the life of the baby really depends on the drug, there is nothing left but the use of force. Of course, this method should be resorted to only as a last resort, while acting as delicately as possible. Try to make sure that the medicine still tastes good, stock up on enough water so that the child can drink it. It is very convenient to dilute the drug with a liquid and inject it into the mouth with a syringe without a needle. It is quite possible that the child will understand that the medicine turned out to be not at all disgusting, and the next time he will take it without any effort on your part.

As Mary Poppins sings: "A spoonful of sugar will help the medicine pass." For the finishing touch, add more creative marketing. Use these tricks.

Choose your medicine.

The same medicine can be produced in different forms, with different tastes. Consider your child's preferences. Medicines intended for both children and adults may have a harsher taste.

Try making magic pasta. Most babies under one year old prefer the liquid form, but if your child is spitting up the medicine all the time, ask your doctor if the medicine is available in chewable tablet form. Crush the tablet between two spoons and add a drop or two of water to make a thick paste. Apply the paste little by little (at the tip of your finger) to the inside of your child's cheek and he will swallow it without resistance. The taste of chewable tablets is usually more pleasant. This even applies to acetaminophen.

Make a pocket behind your cheek. This

our family secret that we use to give medicine to avid spitters (before starting this procedure, put the medicine at hand and draw it into a pipette): put the baby's head in the crook of your arm. With the same hand, grasp the child's cheek and with your middle or index finger pull back the corner of the mouth so that a pocket forms behind the cheek. With your other hand, drop the medicine into this pocket, little by little. This will help you keep your baby's mouth open and his head still. The great thing is that the fact that you hold the child's cheek with your finger prevents him from spitting out the medicine. Keep your cheek in this position until all of the medicine has been swallowed. Need is the mother of ingenuity, or, in this case, the father. I discovered this technique when Marta, the queen of the spoon and pipette in our house, left me alone with eighteen month old Stefan when he needed to be given medicine.

Practice the art of disguise. You can hide a crushed tablet in a sandwich: mix it with jam, put peanut butter on top. Or disguise it with a little milk

The cheek-pocket technique prevents the child from spitting out the medicine.

infant formula or juice. Make the medicine taste as good as possible, but don't make the medicine look like candy.

Try spoons, pipettes, and other medical aids.

A small plastic medical measuring spoon is more convenient than a regular teaspoon. To make sure the spoon comes out clean, run it along the inside of your baby's upper lip as you take it out of your mouth. A pipette with a scale, inserted from the side into the child's mouth between the cheek and gum, is a proven tool. Place a few drops at a time between baby's swallows. Some children take their medicine better from a small plastic cup, which can also be used to collect and re-give what drips.

Aim smart. Try to avoid sensitive areas of the mouth. Taste buds are concentrated on the anterior and central part of the tongue. The palate and the back of the tongue are areas that trigger the gag reflex. It is best to make a pocket between the cheek and gum and bury the medicine deep in the mouth.

When a child is ill, the problem of treatment is added to anxiety and excitement for him. Children do not like to take medicine, and sometimes it takes a lot of patience and effort to persuade them to do so.

The most common difficulty in treatment concerns taking pills. How to teach a child to swallow pills? Of course, there are a number of tips that can make this task easier for parents. After all, it is usually they who are responsible for solving this problem.

It is better to start training from the age of 3.5 years. At this time, you can already agree with the baby. Explain something to him and listen to his fears and concerns.

Oddly enough, it sounds, but training should ideally be carried out when the baby is healthy. In a good mood and in the absence of a sore throat, he is more likely to do what you want from him. Small vitamins can be used as teaching material. The first tablets in a baby's life should not be bitter and large:

Show your child an example, let him repeat all the actions after you. Explain that it is best to take the tablets with plain water.
Teach your child how to properly place the tablet on the tongue. It is necessary to put it far, but not too close to the root, so as not to cause a gag reflex. The same applies if you ask how to teach a child to swallow capsules.
Explain the convenience of swallowing tablets without tasting them rather than chewing them. Tell them that they will dissolve in the stomach, doing everything to make the disease go away.

Many mothers ask how to teach a child to drink pills whole. Of course, it is best not to divide them into parts, unless the dosage requires it. The main thing here is not to worry about parents. After all, their excitement is transmitted to the child. When washed down with water, the tablet will go exactly where it is required.

Did your little one do an excellent job and swallow the pill? Praise him! Reward with something tasty and tell all the relatives what an adult he has already become and how easy it will be to treat him now.

Do not forget to tell the baby that you can drink only those pills that his mother (dad, grandmother) gives him. Emphasize that there are pills from which you can recover, but there are also those that (if taken incorrectly and without permission) can, on the contrary, make you sick.

How to get your child to take medicine

Many parents try to force medicine into their child. This method is not always effective, the baby can choke on water, choke on a pill, it can vomit. Therefore, experts insist on the positive motivation of the baby.

Of course, ideally, you do not need to force the baby to drink the medicine he needs, but it is much more effective to negotiate with him. To do this, you should calm him down, and calm down yourself.

After that, talk to the child. Explain to him that medicines need to be taken in order to recover. Offer to reward him with your favorite sweet after a tasteless preparation.

Be cunning, but never deceive the baby, because otherwise he will not believe you, even if you say sincerely that this pill is not bitter.