Drink Movicol
The medicine tastes and feels strange in the mouth, and the worry about what it does inside the body often outweighs any words about why it is needed. Meet that worry with a calm order, the steps are below.
♀Drink the medicine
A girl smiles and drinks a mixed drink from a clear glass.
About this visual support
Behind a child refusing Movicol there is rarely defiance, but a perfectly reasonable worry. Something unknown is going into the body, it tastes and feels different, and without a picture of what happens the imagination fills the gap with the worst. That worry cannot be talked away in the moment, it has to be met with understanding.
This is where visual support does the most good. With the steps laid out it becomes clear that the glass is mixed, drunk and then done, and that the body is being helped with something that otherwise feels hard. The child sees the task has an end, that it is not open and endless, and a job with a visible edge is far easier to agree to.
One concrete move: break the glass into smaller sips with a picture for each, so the child can tick off one part at a time instead of staring at the whole amount at once. Let the child hold the glass themselves if they want. You can put the medicine routine into the Routined app and try it free for fourteen days.