Son will not swallow pill

I don’t think adderall comes in liquid form, but I do know that regular adderall can be crushed and given in something like pudding or applesauce. We used to use chocolate syrup for giving yucky tasting medicine. If your son has been prescribed adderall xr, the capsule can be opened and the contents sprinkled over some food. The important point is that all of the medicine has to be consumed. If your son has trouble swallowing pills, maybe he could practice with an M & M or a tic tac.

Andrea

The candy “Nerds” are small and easy to swallow to help him practice. My daughter chewed her pills until we switched to capsules that had to be swallowed whole. It took a month or so before she could do it proficiently.

Perhaps your son has a anxiety to taking medication. That pills stuff is a cop out. Try to use behavioral modification or therapy. Ask the company making this pill for the run-down on the ingreds and side effects.

My son had the same problem. He chewed the pill (Adderall) and had a chocolate milk chaser. He outgrew the fear after he chose to take some yucky liquid medicine (not for ADD) instead of taking the same medicine in pill form. The liquid version was so foul that the next time he needed that medicine he went for the pill version.

Get off parents’ backs-you are a one line song. Meds- used properly-for the right kids- are a god send-NOT cop out stuff.

People who put down parents making a difficult call are a real, live gag relflex.

xx

I had the same problem with my then 8 year old son, although he was on Concerta, which is a capsule and bigger than Adderal. A friend of mine taught him a technique that she used with her daughter who had leukemia and took dozens of pills. Let’s see if I can describe it …take small mouthful of water and hold in your mouth. Tilt head all the way back, open mouth (with small amount of water still there), drop pill in and swallow. It should go down easily with water. I used to let my son “chase” it with a few sips of soda (hey, whatever works). It takes a little practice to be able to hold water in mouth without swallowing. Good luck! Eileen C

When our son had that problem (due to a strong gagging reflex), our pediatrician gave us a specially designed plastic glass that has a sort of ribbed area up one wall of the cup. It was a sample he got from a salesman. You set the pill on top of the ribs and the water flows through the ribs and sweeps the pill into the back of the child’s throat. Worked like a charm. (Gotta keep that water off the Concerta though or it will stick to the cup.)

After using the special cup about a month, my son became comfortable taking the meds with just a regular glass of water.

Here’s the company info:

The PillTaker(tm)
Quanterron, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN 55337

I too have a son that will not swallow his medication. He takes Metadate CD. The advice I recieved was to open the capsule in pudding. I now take it to the school w/ pudding and the school nurse gives it to him every morning. This may not be the best way but the difference has been tremendous.

It really bothers me when I see advice to break open the capsule and put the medication in something. Metadate and Concerta are time release capsules which contain 2 (or more) dosages intended to be delivered at different points during the day. When you break them open and put them in food, your child get 2 times the intended dosage (maybe even more). And then you don’t get the benefit of the 2nd dose for Metadate or the continual dosage of Concerta.

If this is your preferred approach, you might as well go back to generic Ritalin (same active ingredient as Metadate and Concerta - methylphenidate) and crush it up in his pudding. (Our son could swallow the little ritalin pill whole as long as it was in applesauce, pudding, or yogurt.) Why pay extra for the time release mechanism?

This was not your doctor’s intent.

Dear Concerned Mom,

Your advice is accurate for some, but not all, medications. For example, Concerta works via an osmotic pump delivery system and should always be swallowed whole. Adderall XR, on the other hand, contains a mixture of beads of regular (not time-released) adderall and beads of adderall designed to release four hours after being taken. The capsule is not an important part of the delivery system. That is why the manufacturer advises that the capsules may be opened, as long as all of the beads are consumed.

Andrea

I don’t know if you are lady or man ? I think Liu has a point. Overmedication may not be too good for the kids, why don’t parents ask the drug companies more about the side effects. Besides, parents should take more time to teach their kids behavioral modification instead of looking for pills all the time to fix the problem. I do for my kid… She is a natural dreamer and expirementor like a female Werner Von Braun rocket science type.

Please trust that if a parent is on this board and spending so very much time lovingly and appropriately parenting their child, then they have lovingly and appropriately chosen a treatmetn plan for that child.

Let this be a forum for exploring all treatmetn options.

With that said, my daughter took several meds for a long time(non-psych) and she swallowed them along with the NERDS candy the first few times.