Getting kids to take medicine can be challenging, but there are tried and true tips that can help!
Jump to the type of medicine you'd like to give:
Capsules
Tablets
Liquid
Eye drops
Nose sprays
If your child is ready to start swallowing pills, see Dr. Stuppy's tips.
If you have medication you want to dispose of safely, see our Medication Disposal page.
Capsules
- Capsules can sometimes be opened and sprinkled onto a soft food, such as yogurt or apple sauce.
- Discuss this with your physician or pharmacist first - some capsules cannot be opened or broken.
- Make sure your child knows to not chew the beads from the capsule.
- Use just one spoon of your child's favorite soft food. Do not put the contents of the capule into a full serving of the soft food, just one bite is much more likely to be completely taken.
Tablets
- Some tablets can be chewed or crushed and placed on soft foods as discussed above.
- Manytablets, such as extended release, those coated to protect from stomach upset, and others should not be crushed, broken, or chewed.
- Discuss whether or not crushing, chewing or breaking a tablet is appropriate with your physician or pharmacist.
Liquid medicine
- Some liquid medicines have flavors most children like, but others are not as palatable.
- If you are giving liquid medicine to an infant, use a syringe and squirt it into their cheek, not the back of the mouth.
- If your child resists the medication, you can try to mask the flavor or chase it with a favorite flavor.
- To mask the flavor, ask your pharmacist if they can flavor it or if you can mix it into something like drinkable yogurt or milk/formula. If you mix it into another liquid, be careful to measure appropriately. Draw up the amount you need for the proper dose, then fill the syringe with the other liquid. You may need a larger syringe or you may need to give a partial dose multiple times. For example, if your child needs 10 ml, you could give 5 ml + 5 ml in two servings back to back.
- To chase the flavor, have your child take the proper amount of medicine, then let them swallow a spoon full of chocolate syrup or similar favorite flavor (syrup is thicker and better than chocolate milk).
- Using a medication syringe or dropper is more accurate than a kitchen spoon or medicine cup. The smaller the dose, the more important this is. For example, an older child needing 10 ml of medication can use a medicine cup more safely than an infant that needs 1 ml of a medication. The cup will not allow for accurate dosing of small doses.
- If you use a syringe or dropper, fill it to the line of the dose required. Make sure there are no air bubbles taking up space.
- If you use a medicine cup, put it on a flat surface and get eye-level to make sure that the liquid is at the level of the correct dosing line.
Measurements to know
- 1 teaspoon (tsp) = 5 milliliters (mL)
- 3 teaspoons (tsp) = 1 tablespoon (tbsp)
- 1 tablespoon (tbsp) = 15 milliliters (mL)
Eye drops
- Eye drops are notoriously uncomfortable for anyone not used to them. Unfortunately if kids cry, they will rinse the medication right out of their eye.
- Always wash hands before and after using eye drops to avoid contaminating the eyes or yourself!
- Ask your pharmacist if refrigerating the type your child is on is appropriate - cold drops often feel more comfortable.
- Drop into closed eyes:
- Have your child lay down with their eyes closed and their chin pointed a bit to the ceiling.
- With eyes closed, place a drop on the corner of the eye near the nose.
- Ask your child to open their eyes to allow the liquid to gently leak into the eye. (If your child fights even this, wait until they're asleep and follow the process above and gently pull on the lower eyelid to open the lid just enough to let liquid in.)
- If your child will participate, ask them to roll their eyes all around - look up and down and side to side.
Nose Sprays
See our full page on Nose Sprays for more.
Getting ready
- Blow your nose. Or even better, rinse it with saline!
- Take off the cap. You’d be surprised how many people skip this step.
- Shake the bottle before each use. Think of Italian salad dressing. If you don’t shake it, you won’t get the good stuff.
- You will need to be sure the tube inside the bottle has the liquid in it if it’s a new bottle or hasn’t been used in awhile. Much like when you get a new pump soap, you need to pump a few times to get results. Once you see the mist come out, you know the medicine’s ready to spray out.
Positioning
- Be sure to keep the bottle fairly upright during the spraying. See the 1st video below for why this is important.
- Many people tilt their head back when using nose sprays. Don’t. You’ll get more drip down your throat and less effective spray onto the nasal tissues.
- Look slightly down.
- Put the tip of the spray bottle into the nose and aim toward the back of the eye on the same side of the head. Don’t ever aim toward the center of the nose. This causes nosebleeds. Use the right hand to spray the left nostril and the left hand to spray the right nostril to help get the proper positioning.
Spraying
- When the tip of the spray bottle is in your nose properly, squeeze the bottle.
- Take the bottle out of your nose before releasing the squeeze. If it’s still in your nose, it will suck up whatever’s in there… including germs that can grow in the bottle.
- Don’t feel like you need to inhale the stuff to your brain. The medicine works in the nose. Sniffing too much will make the medicine bypass your nasal tissue and go to the back of your throat. This misses the opportunity for the medicine to work where it’s supposed to work and it’s an icky feeling in the throat.
- Sniff only enough after the spray to keep it from dripping out.
Finishing up
- Wipe the top of the bottle clean before putting the lid back on.
- Store the bottle out of reach of children and keep it out of the direct sunlight.
