Take pills

About this visual support

Resistance to tablets is rarely defiance. It is a body being asked to let something unknown through a narrow passage, plus the memory of the time it went wrong. Once a child has coughed a tablet back up or felt it sitting in the throat, the expectation of discomfort stays for a long while, and every new dose starts from there rather than from zero.

Pictures help by lifting the tension out of that single second. When the child sees the whole chain in advance, the glass being filled, the tablet placed on the tongue, the sip, the swallow and the sip that follows, it becomes several small actions instead of one frightening leap. Let the child practise the order with a tiny sugar bead or a cold drink first, and keep the table looking the same each evening: glass on the left, pill box on the right. The body learns faster when the scene does not change.

If the medicine has to be taken at a set time, you can add it as a routine in the Routined app, with pictures and a reminder. You can try the app for 14 days without paying, and the visual support here costs nothing to download.