Monday, March 12, 2007

Don't Count Your Chickens...

So Beernut has been on a certain medication for several months and it has been mostly effective. However, we'd noticed that his afternoon dosage wasn't working and he was experiencing some side effects. No prob. The pediatrician added another afternoon med to the mix with hopes that all would be well. One caveat: Beernut would need to swallow this pill. Unlike his other meds, which we are able to pour the contents onto his tongue, this med loses its effectiveness if taken in this fashion. Dr. P sent us home to practice. "How does one practice swallowing medication?" you might ask. Applesauce and M & M's. Beernut loved practicing. And it worked much of the time. So we moved on to the medication. And at first, it worked fabulously. In fact, Beernut exclaimed that he'd like to take all of his medication this way. "Great!" I thought. "I've actually managed to teach my kid how to swallow pills"

Well, it was short-lived. More often than not, the pill got stuck on the way down...and then came back up. I figured that chocolate pudding would do the trick. And it did -- once!

Needless-to-say, Dr. P came up with Plan B -- a totally different approach that does not involve pills, applesauce, or pudding.

1 comment:

PepGiraffe said...

I'm a little suprised that it didn't work. It's gross, but what might work is this: have the patient chew up a sandwich and right before he swallows, have him shove the pill in the middle of the mess (yay, play with your food!). The key is that it has to be back in the middle of the throat. The hardest thing about swallowing a pill I've found is the distance from the front of the tongue to the back of it. Once you have that down pat, the rest is easy.

Or you could try peanut butter.