Learning to swallow a pill can change a child’s life

By Jordanna Heller
Posted June 14, 2010

10-year-old Alysa Hauck demonstrates how to swallow a pillChanging the tilt of your head when swallowing pills can make all the difference between being successful or not finds Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, of the Faculty of Medicine and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health. Her study is published online in Paediatrics & Child Health.

The study finds that children who have never been able to swallow a whole pill can become successful by learning various head positions.

“If a child with a chronic or acute illness, such as cancer or arthritis, cannot swallow a pill, it can be a huge problem. Some medications are very difficult to turn into liquid form, or taste horrible when they are liquid. There are cases where children cannot leave the hospital because they have to keep getting their medications through an IV or injections,” says Kaplan, a research psychologist in the Behavioral Research Unit of the Department of Paediatrics at Alberta Children’s Hospital.

Fabiola Hauck knows how stressful it can be for a child and their family when they cannot swallow pills. Her daughter Alysa has an autoimmune disorder, requiring about 10 different medications a day.  As a young girl, unable to swallow pills, Alysa could not travel, sleep at a relative’s, or even play at a friend’s because of the need to refrigerate and keep track of all the different medications she was on. That all changed when she took part in Kaplan’s study.

Jarad Hauck, 12, with his sister Alysa Hauck, 10, and researcher Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, with all the bottles of liquid medication Alysa used to take, now replaced by the small greeen case with pills“It was so empowering for her to be able to swallow pills. It opened so many doors. We can take trips now, she can go to the park for the afternoon, she is invited to sleepover, just like any normal girl,” says mom Fabiola of Alysa, now 10 years old.

Alysa was even able to teach her older brother Jarad how to swallow pills. Jarad has juvenile arthritis and needs to take medicine for his illness. Alysa used tic tacs to show Jarad how to swallow the pills, just as she was shown during the study.

“This is a case where something very simple can make such a huge difference in people’s lives. Occasionally something comes up in health care where we don’t need physician expertise, but it is a simple intervention that has broad implications for the lay public, like the Heimlich manoeuvre.” says Kaplan.

This research and a training video showing techniques for swallowing pills are supported by the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation.

You can view the video at: www.ucalgary.ca/research4kids/pillswallowing

Kaplan and her students are now working with ear, nose and throat physicians to study the dynamics of swallowing in various head positions. They are looking for adults who have no difficulty swallowing pills who might be interested in volunteering for this next study. If interested, please call Lucas Badenduck at 403-999-0364 or by email at labadend@ucalgary.ca or contact Dr. Bonnie Kaplan at 403-955-7363