An eight-year-old boy is ecstatic after swapping his “horrible” tasting liquid medication for tablets – thanks to a revolutionary Pill School at Evelina Children’s Hospital.
James Nichols, who had a kidney transplant aged five, is one of hundreds of children who will benefit from the service at the Waterloo hospital.
The school teaches children to take tablets by getting them to swallow small hard sweets that get progressively bigger.
While some children prefer liquid medication, tablets are cheaper, easier to store and reduce the risk of dosage mistakes.
James said: “I find it easier taking tablets now. It was horrible before because I had lots of liquid medicine to take and they didn’t taste nice!”
James’s mum Samantha Nicholds said: “Every morning, James needs to take a number of different drugs to protect his kidney, and being able to take them in the tablet form has made things so much easier.
“As the dose of his medication meant that he was having to drink quite a lot of liquid medicine, which was not pleasant!”
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The school has been launched following a successful trial in 2019 which saw 26 out of 30 children, aged three to fourteen, successfully complete a short course.
Dr Asia Rashed, pharmacy project manager at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, said: “We start children off using a small hard sweet approximately 3mm wide, and slowly increase the size to be approximately the same as the tablet, normally about 1cm to 1.5cm.
“Children will swallow food bigger than these sizes, so the training provides tips on how to angle their head and to provide reassurance.”
Following the trial a feasibility study found that, for every discharged child that continued using tablets instead of liquid medication, the Trust would save over £1,000 a year.