Impossible to swallow his meds | ADHD Information
here's my 2 cents worth...lol i know that with me, sometimes pills taste bad even when they're supposedly supposed to have no taste. try giving something with the pill that might overpower the taste of the pill. red hawaiian punch or something like that. i use that with my kids whenever they have trouble with the taste of meds. just a thought..A lot of people have already given good suggestions but here are mine:
Cool Whip, Spray Whipped Cream, Chocolate Pudding, and Ice Cream. The pudding we use when we need to take the medicine on the road. We have also used Yumsters yogurt (thicker) and go-gurt.
Thanks to everyone!!!!!!!!!!Alex is finally taking his metadate capsule(opened up and sprinkled on a tiny bit of Hershey's chocolate syrup). He gets a small reward after a week(keep track w marble in a jar each day). He may need a higher dosage though since we have not seen much improvement after 8 days of taking this med. Hopefully we will find the right does and medication before the start of school(Sept. 7th). Thanks for everyone's support!My son Alex was given medatate cd last week when he was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD. The problem is getting him to take his medication. He only needs to take it once a day, a small 10mg pill and it could be mixed with applesauce if needed. I have tried to get him to take it with applesauce (he spits it up) and he did swallow the pill twice but now gags when we try and mornings are getting to be impossibole with him. I asked his neurologist if there is a liquid form he could take but he said no, just keep trying. I am at a loss of how to get him to take his medication! Any tips or suggestions? I had tried that,unfortunaltely did not work, now he won't even let me put the pill in his mouth. I don't envy you.
Longshot: have you talked to your son and asked him if he can come up with a solution to this problem? Bribery to get over the hump? Once he gets the hang of it, he will be so proud of himself.
He is 7 and hard to reason with, he has decided today he does not like the medicine since he is not hungry at lunch anymore. I guess I just have to keep trying and maybe some bribery wouldn't be so bad at this point!
IMac38942.9203472222Yes, you're right! 
Thanks!
IMac38942.9200578704Thank you so much, everyone here has been a help and I feel so good to
able to turn to this board for help, you are all so informative!!! I
will try so more creative approaches, he is just so negative and
resistant. I think I need to be more relaxed about all of this.You can open the Metadate CD capsules and sprinkle the contents on applesauce, yogurt, etc. We have been doing this with my daughter for 2-3 years. She is 11 and still cannot swallow pills consistently. We put a little dab of yogurt on a spoon, sprinkle the Metadate on it, and then cover it up with another dab of yogurt on top. Pudding might work too.
we never had a problem with our son taking his meds. he started taking them at just under 4 years old. I would have him lean his head back as far as he could and have his mouth open and make it a contest. If i could get the pill go to the very back of his throat with out it hitting his tongue, I would do a "happy" dance. He loved it!! At 7 he might not appreciate the happy dance, but i'm sure you can come up with some thing just as creative. One thing you will learn on this life long ADHD journey is how to and the necessity to be creative. Creativity and consistency are the most important parts for a parent of an adhd child has. I have adhd, so i know first hand how hard it is for them and how to keep his attention. You are in the right place and feel free to pm me or ask any thing, these people are here for the same reason!!! welcome to the board!
[QUOTE=momofalex]Thank you so much, everyone here has been a help and I feel so good to able to turn to this board for help, you are all so informative!!! I will try so more creative approaches, he is just so negative and resistant. I think I need to be more relaxed about all of this.
[/QUOTE]
right on!!!
My ds is 12 and we still haven't started swallowing pills. We use yogurt too for the Focalin capsules.
i had the same problem with my son taking his medication because he is a picky eater he didn't like applesauce or yogurt so i used vanilla ice cream in the small dixie cups and he had no problems plus got the rest of the ice cream as a reward for taking his medcineMy son too had to take Medatate CD (20 mg). He could not swallow the pills so we had to put it in applesauce. Well the texture of the applesauce he could not handle (gagging throwing up) so I would put it in a yogurt. I used the gogurts and put it in a bowl and spoon feed him until he could do it on his own. We told him that he needed his medication to help him in school and with his friends. That seemed to want him to take it. But on the weekends forget it. He said he wanted a break and it seemed to work fine. Hope this helps and good luck. Ususally if you give them some sort of control over what they have to do they are more willing to do it. Take care!Hi,
I just joined today ! I am not sure if you would want to change or not. My Son at one time was also on on a pill form at one time and he won't swallow it. So we switched him to Medate CD , it is a capsule but you can open it and spread it on his food. or just put it in his mouth and he can drink something. That has really worked for us.
Good Luck!
ksks
Once i read somewhere to buy a bag of skittles or m&ms and say if they can
swollaw one then they can have the whole bag, which will get them past the
fear of swollowing pills. You can also ask the pharmisist for pill cups and
you fill them up with water so they ill like floats.Here's a thought........have a yummy popsicle handy, like the fruit one. Maybe the fruity flavor will help the taste and will be a positive for him. Just a thought. Hope that helps!
Metadate is a form of Ritalin. There is now the Daytrana patch, which is also a form of Ritalin. It delivers the ritalin through the skin like one of those 'quit smoking' patches. This avoids all pill swallowing problems.
We used to hide the pills in pudding with my son, who very quickly graduated to using just a spoon with nothing on it. My suggestion would be to practice with candy - start with a small size (like a mini m&m or ice cream sprinkles and work your way up).
Yes that is what i done with my son as he was dianogsed at 6 and i was worried abt him taking his med's as he refuses 2 tke medicine so i thought it would be the same but all i done was get a pack of tic tacs as there a similar shape 2 concerta pills and i said 2 him we have a game and see if he could swalloow the tic tac b4 me and he did and then aftr that i told him abt the meds he need 2 tke 2 help him behave bttr and he understood and now he even says 2 me in the morning that it time for his med's so that worked for me but im not sure if it will for u just give it a go and then aftr just reward him with little things 2 show that he has done good by taking his tablets and u are vry pround of him hope this help good luck
Thank you everyone for such great ideas!!!! I am going out today to get some tic tacs to try and also some small bags of M&Ms(which he loves!). We also started the marble system(Ogram's) for this purpose and when he gets 7 marbles he will earn a prize. So far,it is still a struggle but he wants to try now!!
Good luck i hope it works like it did with me, anything worth a try 2 c if it works keep us posted 
The more you try and swallow with stuff the easier it gets. I just have a issue with people who think good attention will fix the persons educational problems. Get over you have to be on your butt to learn. I say we the parents should let staff know and politicians know textbook learning isn't sucessful for all. I say the 3 multi sensory method is what the techers need to teach all kinds of kids. IMac38942.920775463