At what age can a kid swallow medicine?

[LuckyMommaToo]

Over the holidays poor DS (age7) cracked a molar and had to have it extracted. The oral surgeon told us to give him some Motrin the first night, which I was happy to do. But he had to have the children's chewable kind. So now I'm wondering -- is he old enough to figure out how to swallow medicine? Is there some trick to teaching this skill?

thanks,

-e

[LynnS6]

Ds is 9 and doesn't have this skill, and I'd love to be able to teach him.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

dd is 10 and refuses to even try though she is going to have to learn soon. The Dr. was explaining how the childrens medication has preservatives and giving basically an adult dose of that med can cause a bad reaction to all the extra preservatives. I am going to get some tic tacs or something and work with dd on learning to swallow pills before to much longer. She freaks out when I even mention it right now.

[Luvwellness]

My daughter just turned 7, and she just started swallowing supplements. We started with the little fish oil caps. They are small little balls from Nordic naturals for kids. We kind of made it a challenge, because she thought she just couldn't do it. So we had her curl her Big Toe while she was trying to swallow it took a few times and a lot of laughs but she did it and now has no trouble. It's getting them to relax their throat while they swallow so when they are trying to curl their toe their not thinking about it. Good luck!:joy

[staceychev]

DD is 5.5 and does it with supplements. We just explained the mechanics to her and gave her two methods to try: daddy's, which is pill then water, and mommy's, which is water then pill. I think it helps that she's into taking vitamins because we do, and she likes to seem grown up.

[tanyalynn]

Kids can learn to swallow pills young if they're at all motivated and you start small and easy.  My kids started a year ago, DS was 3.5yo and DD was just shy of 6.  Small pills, something fairly slick on the outside (a capsule would work, a lot of tablets have more texture on the outside and can taste funny if they linger even just a few moments in the mouth, gelcaps are pretty slick--my kids first learned with my vitamin D supp, it's about the same dosage as their drops), and maybe help it along with some maple syrup or honey on the outside.  My kids progressed from fairly small pills to adult sized ones within a couple weeks. 

[nextcommercial]

My daughter is 18 and she's still all dramatic about it.  But, I think most kids can handle it by age six or so.

[Earthiemama]

My son has been taking pills since he was very small-3 maybe?. While he takes chewable vitamins the rest of supplements are in standard pill form. I think it one of those things that if don't do it it can be hard to "learn". We never used anyhting special, he just did it but my nieces could not take anything unless followed immediately by a tsp of honey. Maybe try that?

[HollyBearsMom]

I second the honey trick. I think the sticky/smoothness gets the kids to swallow and helps it go down easily.  I would think apple sauce or yogurt would work well too,

[MJB]

I couldn't swallow pills until 14 (and I still gag on them a lot) but my oldest started at 6 and my second did at 4.5.

[The4OfUs]

DS will be 7 in 10 days and he just started a couple months ago.

[StephandOwen]

Originally Posted by nextcommercial 

My daughter is 18 and she's still all dramatic about it.  But, I think most kids can handle it by age six or so.

LOL! That's me (only I'm older than 18). I gag and whine and the whole nine yards when I have to take a pill. I gagged on my birth control pill more times than I care to admit and that thing is tiny!

[camracrazy]

We taught my middle DD at one or two. She has to take digestive enzymes with every meal though so it was important for her to learn.

We either put the whole pill in a spoonful of applesauce and had her swallow it or put it back on the back of her tongue and had her take a drink through a straw.

[Petie1104]

DD was 3, but that was out of necessity.  The 4 year ds can't yet, or hasn't had the opportunity to need to.  DS 9 yrs. old can but he doesn't like to and dss 13 yrs. old can but he makes a fuss about it.  DH can just swallow them without water or anything, I don't get that.  That would make me gag horribly and feel like the pill is still in my throat.  At any rate, I think kids learn when it is necessary to learn.  When they have to, they can figure it out. DD we didn't really teach her, we just said, "hey you can't chew this OK, so just swallow".  She didn't have any problems.  DS was old enough that he just kind of figured out what he had to do.  We did tell him to use water to swallow it and he didn't like it but he figured it out.  At the time, he had swine flu and was miserable anyway. 

[meemee]

dd did at 5. its because she wanted to. at 4 she wanted the chewables. 

and yes she can swallow without water too. she saw me do it and wanted to try it and did it. 

[chattyprincess]

Dd learned this skill over christmas...at about 4.5. We practiced with mini chocolate chips first (you can also use the mini m&m's ) She hates hates hates chewing or taking liquid medicine. And the kind she needed to put on was especially vile, even flavored. So she learned in about two seconds lol. She puts a sip of water in her mouth. Puts the pill in, and drinks more water and swallows, tada! lol...very teachable. My mother taught all 3 of her kids how to do it this was too.

[averlee]

I heard one dad suggest trying to practice with m&m's. Very few pills are bigger than an m&m, and I bet most kids would agree to try to swallow one.

[nola79]

My ds did at 6. He had a new medicine that was in pill form, so we gave him his favorite drink and he got it after a few tries.

[sapphire_chan]

When I was a kid, we'd just get however many milligrams of the adult medication (~1/2 a pill) crushed  up and in a kid-sized entire bowl of apple sauce. So we'd cuddle up on the couch with a cozy blanket and a bowl of apple sauce (we were told that it contained medicine, but couldn't actually see any) and by the time we finished the bowl the first part of the medicine was kicking in and we were feeling better.

(Apple sauce is still a comfort food for me. Can't believe I just realized why.)

Hmm, no idea when I was able to take pills. I got painkiller applesauce for years after I was taking other pills though.

[camracrazy]

I have heard parents say they like this cup for pill swallowing, but I haven't tried it:

http://www.oralflo.com/ 

 ETA: My 6 yo will "dry swallow" pills too but I wonder how good that is since you need to drink plenty of water with some medications.