Getting my son to take his medicine | ADHD Information
Are you sure we don't live in the same household!! My son is also on AdderallXR for exactly the same reason. He can't swallow a pill, so we opted to use the AdderallXR so that we could open it up and sprinkle it. We are experiencing the same thing where he will do fine with it for a while and then we battle because it tastes bad. Right now we are putting it into a small medicine cup (like that comes with childrens tylenol) with drinkable yogert (I use Dannimals). This is starting to wear thin with him though because he takes such a long time to drink it, it does start to taste. If only he would just drink it right down. Mornings are so stressfull I totally understand what you are going through! You might want to try the drinkable yogert thing when your current plan of attack starts to wear thin.
Thank you to everyone for their input and suggestions. I came up with the brilliant idea of putting the medicine inside the middle of a twinkie (my sons FAVORITE) and we had no problems this morning! YEAH !!!!!
Any other suggestions are very much welcomed as I'm sure this solution will only last a month or so like the others and then we are back to the drawing board again.
This is for monkey's mom. My son has been on Strattera 25mg for over a year. I believe you are NOT supposed to open the capsule. I can't remember who told me this so please double check with you pharmicist or Dr. I've gotten to really know the pharmicist and she is very helpful with the drug requirements, methods of release, etc. Plus, her help is free.
We started on Adderall 10mg and I had to put his med in yogurt every morning for a year. Then, when we switched to Strattera, he just got over his problem. He thought the capsule was plastic and refused to eat plastic.
HI my son is ten and he can not swallow a pill if you pay him. What i do for him, and he has done since the age of five, is put the whole capsule right in apple sauce, or yogurt, or even pudding. Now for him he can not see the pill or he has it in his mind it won't go down. He is on concerta.Hi Everyone,My 6 year old son just started Straterra 2week ago & I've been opening the capsule & sprinkling it on a spoonful of yogurt or applesauce. It's so frustrating getting him to take it. Did anyone have success getting their children to swallow it whole?
[QUOTE=monkey's mom]Hi Everyone,
My 6 year old son just started Straterra 2week ago & I've been opening the capsule & sprinkling it on a spoonful of yogurt or applesauce. It's so frustrating getting him to take it. Did anyone have success getting their children to swallow it whole? [/QUOTE]
Straterra is NOT supposed to be opened. Please have him try another way to take this med.
Have you tried maybe getting that medicine in a liquid form and then give it to your son in like his milk or somethin...I don't know...thats a toughf one...I know at 17 I have to give my bro his meds in food...lol
little munchin...he knows...they are not dumb...kids these days are really smart believe it or not..lol...anyways maybe try talking to your doctor...
My 6 yr. old son takes Stratera capsules, 18mg twice a day (36mg total)- he can't swallow pills either-- i DO open them up and sprinkle them into half of an icecream sandwich. I told the Dr. prior to choosing stratera that i would need a pill i can 'sprinkle'-- we also take ritalin and sprinkle those too. She had no problem with my sprinkling the stratera AND it's been a WONDERFUL drug for him from day one. We've been using Stratera since Sept with great results.
Elizabeth
Straight from the Strattera website:
How To Take Strattera Take Strattera exactly as directed by your physician. Strattera offers flexible dosing, once or twice daily. Discuss a convenient schedule for taking Strattera with your doctor. Strattera may be taken with or without food. If you miss a dose, take it as soon as possible, but do not take more than the total daily dose in any 24-hour period. If possible, take Strattera at the same time every day to keep on schedule. Strattera capsules should never be broken and sprinkled on food. They must be taken whole.
http://www.strattera.com/1_2_taking_strattera/1_2_5_take.jsp
Elizabeth & anyone else opening the capsules, please reconsider this, there is a reason why the manufactorer asks you not to. Please check with them directly, or your pharmacist before continuing this way.
As a side note, my Dr had better have a damn good reason for going against the manufactorers dosing instructions, or I would get myself a better informed Dr. The stim you can open the capsule on, not the non-stims.
csmommy38300.6215856482They also make a chewable and Liquid form however it has to be given more than 1 time a day. My 5 year old son in on the chewable kind, that we crush up and put in his cereal. The school gives him a second dose with snack in teh afternoon.Hi Everyone
We need help getting our son who is 7 to take his medicine. He was diagnosed with ADHD last December and has been taking Aderall XR because he cannot swallow a pill yet.
At first, we would open the capsule and put it in a spoonful of ice cream, which seemed to work for several months and then all of a sudden he would not take it saying it tasted yucky, so we put it in pudding, which again for several months and then the same story, it tasted yucky. My husband came up with another brillant idea of putting it on peanut butter toast, which would for a while and now we are back to same story.
This causes SO much stress on everyone to get him to take the medicine in the morning. We don't know what else to try, he doesn't like applesauce so that is out of the question.
ANY suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We can't be the only parents out there with this problem (at least I hope not!)
Thanks!
How about yogurt?
Or wrap it in a piece of cheese?
Swallow it in the capsule with ice cream? (then it won't taste bad)
My son is five and we practiced with Tic Tacs. I've also heard of using m&m's. He takes Concerta 18 with no problem now.
Well, my advice would be to teach your son to take pills.
For all my life except for the past 2 months, I hadn't been able to take pills. I avoided them like the plague and whenever I tried to swollow them, the pill would get stuck on the side of my mouth and i'd spit it out. Finally after getting a really bad case of the hives, i taught myself to swollow pills.
While I know it's pretty automatic if you've been taking pills for awhile, it can be both frustrating and confusing if you don't. The best way to teach him is to just take some mini m&m's, have you child put it on his tongue and then just take a gulp of water. Tell him to completely forget about the m&m and just drink the water as if it's the m&m isn't there.