Teaching your child to swallow tablets

Why is swallowing pills better than liquid medicines?

Swallowing pills are better:

• For children and young people: pills are less sickly, contain less sugar and children who swallow pills tend to have less problems taking their medicines
• For carers: pills have a longer shelf-life, do not need to be kept in a fridge, are easier to carry around and more readily available in local pharmacies
• For pharmacists: pills are more commonly stocked in local pharmacies compared to suspensions and cheaper

Swallowing pills is an important life skill for children to learn, for the reasons above, and because most medicines are in pill form.

What do I need to do to teach my child how to swallow pills?

• More information can be found on medicines for children.org.uk