Swallowing pills (Kidzmed)

Kidzmed is a programme developed to help families to teach children and young people how to swallow pills using a simple six-step technique. It was set up at the Great North Children’s Hospital, Newcastle, and has won the NHS Sustainability Award, the HSJ Value Award for Pharmacy and Optimisation and the Bright Ideas in Health Award for Demonstrating an Impact upon Quality Improvement.

Why are 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.