sippy cup for taking pills

[Hopeny]

I never knew such a thing existed until the customer service person at Lee Silsby mentioned it. Pill taking is a daily struggle with DD9, and I am trying to get her completely off suspensions, so I ordered one from Amazon (after calling/going to all of our local drugstores to try to find one). You put the liquid in the cup and the pill sits in a special spout on the top. when you tip the cup into your mouth the liquid washes the pill down, almost - you still have to swallow. DD said the cup does seem to make it easier than just swallowing straight with liquid, although she did manage to spit one out the first time we tried it. Tonight is the second night ever she has taken a probiotic in capsule form in 12+ months, previously I had to empty into liquid. Sharing in case this is a struggle for anyone.

I also bought some spray at CVS that is supposed to make it go down easier, but we have not tried that yet. Will post if we need to use it but so far this cup is working acceptably well. I really wish I had known about this before!

[airial95]

We tried the spray, but my son didn't like it. We also used the cup - it's called the Oralflo cup for anyone interested. sometimes though, the pill would get caught if the sippy part of it wasn't completely dry - which was a challenge if more than one pill needed to be taken at a time. (we used a hair dryer to dry it out if needed).

 

Within 3-4 months of using the cup, my 5 year old decided he could swallow pills without it, and has been doing it ever since - even swallows those horse Augmentin pills and multiple pills at a time.

 

It really was very helpful.

[Hopeny]

Thanks I hope we can get to the point where she doesn't complain. She hates taking medicine and usually gives me a hard time. Today I put three capsules (small) in the top at one time and she washed it down. I hate making her take all this stuff but there's no alternative

[airial95]

My little one was awesome at taking his meds, for almost 3 years, we would just lay them out when it was time, and he would just come up and take them on his own, no muss, no fuss. Then last summer he got strep again, and along with it was this massive anxiety about taking meds - to the point where he would vomit he was so anxious. Shortly thereafter, is when his abx dosage increased to the point where he really needed to start doing pills vs. liquids (b/c it was so much liquid!) and it went down hill from there - hiding it in food was a no-go, and on average it would take us over an hour to get his meds in him - not without major wrangling, vomitting and sometimes even holding him down. No one was happy.

 

Our therapist gave us a relaxation technique to use with him about 20 min prior to medicine time, and it worked to some extent (got rid of the vomiting at least), but when he started using the cup that was a step in the right direction - he would still have anxiety, but not as bad. When he made the decision to start swallowing without the cup - it was a turning point. He still has rituals to taking medicine (the dog has to come and watch him - it's quite the production), but it's usually quick (now getting him to take it when we're on the road for IVIG with Dr. B was another story - after Day 2 we were Skyping with the dog to get her to watch...I'm not kidding...)

 

Recently - we got him one of those pill sorters and pre-loaded it. He loves that he can be "in control" of his medication, even though he's only 5. Maybe something like that will help your 9 yo - letting her be "in charge".