WFMW: Swallowing Pills
Do you remember what it was like trying to learn how to swallow pills? Like it was yesterday I remember the way the pill would swirl around and around in my mouth as I took in a mouthful of water. It swam like a whale and then beached itself on the front of my tongue, even more forward than where I had dutifully placed it to begin it’s journey. Not only that, it now tasted horrible.
Somewhere along the way, long after I’d learned how to swallow them successfully, I read a great tip and stored it for future reference. It worked beautifully with both boys. Adam learned how to swallow pills when he was five! Liam didn’t need to until a bit later, but also learned very quickly.
Put some water into a water bottle, like the 20 oz kind. Anything with a smaller opening that automatically creates a pursed mouth shape. If the bottle is only a third full or so, they will need to tip their heads back. We started with a tiny soft gel because they are the easiest to swallow. You can get little fish oil soft gels for kids or Vitamin D soft gels. As soon as they got over the hurdle of letting something go down with fluids, they had no trouble swallowing a larger capsule. Adam has superceded me by a long shot and swallows four or more capsules at a time. {eyes bulging!} And I know, why would a child need to swallow so many pills? Lyme will do that to you. Thank God we’re nearing the end of the many capsule nights for both boys!
Have you helped someone learn how to swallow pills? Any great tips?
We had the boys practice, using M & M’s. =) Of course one gets to chew a few too – not just swallowing them.
Logan learned to swallow pills quite young and I was so thankful that it was easy for him. We had one though, who had more trouble. He finally mastered it, but I wonder if this bottle trick wouldn’t have helped him.
This brings back memories for me. I did not learn to swallow pills until I was married, in mid 20s. I wish I would have known that tip. Also for our oldest son, he was married, and him and another young married man that had not mastered swallowing pills tried the m&m swallowing one evening but were not sucsessful. My son and his family were in a car accident 3years ago,at the hospital they gave him pain meds, as I was standing there watching he swallwed pills for the first time. I guess when you are in a state of shock you can do anything. So no tips from me just memories.
Thanks for that tip. I have about thrown up my hands in despair at getting the girls to swallow pills. I got them some probiotics that were in a tiny pearl, literally the size of a Nerd candy, if that means anything to you, and they couldn’t do it. I’ll have to try it with the soft gels and the water bottle and see what happens.
UGH, wish I had known this years ago!!! I can remember as a little girl sitting there and crying trying to get pills down!!! I have trouble to this day!! My children sure didn’t get it from me to be able to swallow pills easily!! Thank Goodness for my vitamins in a bottle!!!!
Hi, I am a stranger here, blog hopping … this post reminds me of the hours I spent as an adolescent agonizing over extremely bitter pills that dissolved quickly (aka. awful taste when not swallowed on first attempt!) or very large round also quick to break down pills. I would take at least a half-one hour in one pill swallowing episode procrastinating and etc. etc. Thankfully I got over it.
But i was advised by a nurse as an adult during a hospital to keep my chin down to swallow pills. This keeps the esophagus open rather than stretched tight when our heads are tilted. This works well especially for large pills (tho you may need to make sure the pill is at the back of your mouth before you put your chin down to swallow).