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These tips have been contributed by other parents, carers and professionals. We hope they will give you some ideas to try, but if you need further help why not post a question on our forums or talk to our site experts.
Keep it together
We have got a plastic over-door shoe holder for keeping syringes, flexitainers, giving sets etc in. It doesn't take up any room, and it's see-through so everything is easy to find.
Cup space chamber
We used a polystyrene cup as an emergency space chamber for our young son's inhaler. Push the inhaler through the bottom of the cup and use as a mask over the nose and mouth. Perfect on holidays or to stash at grandparents' houses if space chamber prescriptions are in scarce supply.
Keep track
I keep a list of all my son's current medication, doses and frequency taken in the back of his red book. I also keep a note of his seizure management plan and contact details of all the professionals involved (a BIG list!). This way, I am always prepared at appointments and/or hospital admissions.
Liquid medicine syringe and bottle stopper
When you get near the bottom of a bottle of liquid medicine, instead of pouring it into the lid or a spoon (and making a sticky mess!) draw it up into the syringe to measure it, then you can get a bottle stopper device which fits into the top of the bottle and stays there, so you can accurately measure using a syringe straight from the bottle.
Snap em!
Use your mobile phone to take a photo of all the medicine bottles / packets the person you care for needs. Simple, but really useful if there's a sudden admission to hospital or confusion in the pharmacy. You will never be stumped by the milligrams per kilogram question again!
Chocolate fix
I used to struggle administering meds to my 13 yo daughter who is autistic and has complex learning difficulties. I now ask for all meds in pill form which I crush up, mix into warm melted chocolate and pour into ice cube trays until hardened. I use a specific rubber ice cube mould for each type of medication.
Juicy tip
I mix my son's meds into his fresh orange juice carton and give it a big shake up - some are oil based and 'float' but he can't see that:-) Pills are crushed and dropped in via a small funnel.
Jammy dodger
We crush my brother's medication and mix it in jam, which he has on his toast in the morning.
Tic tacs worked a treat
To help get my son used to swallowing tablets I started him off with tic tacs. He has autism +ADHD and had big problems with things in his mouth. Once he got used to the tic tacs I would use a sports bottle to give him a drink (better flow control) and then challenge him to swallow the tic tac with the water. It didn't matter to start with if he chewed the tic tac. Now he takes his meds with no problem at all.
Swallowing medicines
Here’s what worked for us:
When she started on thyroxine tablets (which are very small) I taught her to put it at the back of her tongue and take a big mouthful of milk to wash it down. We put her tablets in one of those little measuring pots (they come with cough medicine etc.) and now she can swallow several quite large tablets at once with no problems.
Antibiotics: I bought some white chocolate buttons, poured out the medicine and balanced one chocolate button on the spoon too, so to get the button she had to take the medicine too.
I crush tablets into some marmalade.
Natural pain relief
When our hospital pain team prescribed valium, with their approval we tried this instead and it worked brilliantly, they were amazed to see it stopped our sons post op spasms and they now recommend it: lemon balm tea, mag phos Martin and pleasance spray. Westmead childrens hospital are now looking to trial it.
Swallowing bitter pills
My daughter takes a very bitter-tasting AED. I import empty capsules from the US (can't find any in the UK) and put the pills inside the capsules. That way, the pills dissolve in the stomach not the mouth & are more easily swallowed with food. One doctor was concerned the capsules might stop the medication being absorbed at the correct rate, but my daughter's paediatrican is happy with it. If you want to try this, check with your paediatrician first. www.capsuline.com
Just in case
We keep a list/chart of drugs that Layla takes and put it where we keep the drugs so in the event of being unavailable, someone will be able to see what drugs are needed to be administered and the amounts and times.
Use all of the dissolving tablets
Tanya has medication in dissolvable tablet form and I have found that it is easier to put the tablets in an oral syringe, then draw the water up into it rather than dissolve the tablets in a cup of water. This ensures that all the medication is administered rather that some being left behind in the cup.
Tablet splitters
You can get tablet splitters, useful for cutting tablets exactly into two or four pieces (but very sharp so be careful).
Home-made nebuliser stand
We made a nebuliser stand out of a Microphone stand. We used some elephant tubing instead of a mike. We position it near to Laurie while she sleeps.Got a tip to add to this page? Tell us
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