How To Get Them To Take Their Meds

“Taking medicines is usually a big fight, but once you convince him that that the medicine needs to go down one way or another – for his body to heal, he’ll be more cooperative. Of course, I’m referring to a child old enough to comprehend the whole concept. My son was 7.”

“The troche was a dreaded part of the therapy.  Someone suggested taking the troche with a mint.  That helped a lot.”

“Our daughter had a very difficult time swallowing the steroids.  They taste awful and she had had very little experience with swallowing pills.  We got gel cap covers for the bad tasting pills and this made taking them a lot easier.  These gel caps come in different sizes and can be used for many of the medications.”

“We learned the hard way to ALWAYS pre-medicate our daughter with anti-nausea drugs before the harshest chemo.  She seemed to be doing well and so on one occasion we did not give her Kytril before the chemo.  She was much sicker.  After that we learned to always give her the anti-nausea drugs first.”

“After the first couple of spinal taps our daughter could not bear to go through it anymore.  She did not like being semi-conscious so we asked about alternative.  We learned that the spinal taps can be done in the operating room and do not require that your child be intubated.  The children are just put out for a few minutes and the spinal tap is done while they are asleep.  That worked much better for our daughter.”

“Our daughter hated her port.  We had it taken out early in maintenance and she was much happier getting the chemo in her hand.  Ask your child’s doctor what your options are regarding ports.  Give your child as much say as possible in how the medicines are delivered.”

” Our daughter at three and a half could not swallow the multitude of pills she needed daily. We tried everything; mixing crushed pills into peanut butter with chocolate sauce, stirring it into applesauce, hiding it in cake frosting (Always check about food/drug interaction before trying any new attempts). She would do something for a week and then just stop. It was really tough. Our best solution came form one of the oncology nurses at the hospital. She dissolved the pills in a little bit of water then sucked it up into a sterile syringe (needle removed of course) and we squirted it into the side of her cheek, just like you would with an infant, and then followed with an m&m chaser. This has worked for over six months!”

” Over the course of two years we had to try many different things to get Carlos to take his pills.  He was only 2 1/2 at diagnosis so in the beginning we had to crush or dissolve all his pills.  The steroids were always the hardest.  At first we used applesauce and yogurt but after a while he stated associating a bad taste with those foods so we switched to chocolate sauce and chocolate pudding.  Then as he grew older we were able to get him to swallow the pills with the promise of a Hershey’s kiss to follow.”