At what age can I have my child take their medications by themselves?

Speaker: Kathryn Kinasz, MD, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow

Kathryn Kinasz, MD: Hi, everyone. My name is Doctor Kate Kinasz, and I'm a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow who works at both CHC and Stanford. And today, the question is at what age can I have my child take their medications by themselves? And while this is a great question and a question that's asked all the time, unfortunately the answer is not straightforward. For one, chronological age is just one factor that goes into taking a medication independently. For one, we also have to consider the child's developmental age. If a child is younger developmentally, it's going to take them longer before they can take their medications by themselves. But in addition to that research on childhood compliance and medication indicates that there are many factors that go into medication compliance. These include chronological and developmental age, but they also include the child's understanding of their diagnosis, the parents' understanding of the diagnosis, the child's understanding of the need for medication, the child's feelings towards their medication. Do they like the taste of it? Do they like how the medication makes them feel? ...The child's relationship with the diagnosis and the medication. What I mean by that is, do they feel a stigma around having to take a medication every day? Are they angry or embarrassed by having to take a medication every day? There's other factors involved too, including their understanding of what medication does to their body and so many others that we can list. So what does this mean for you? One, it needs to be a conversation with your child and with their medication provider. If you feel your child is at an age where they're doing many other things independently but not taking their medication, we should be exploring this more. But secondly, we also want to make sure parents always do have that scaffolding in place. We don't want to just leave it to the child and if they're not taking their medication, say, "oh, this is the consequence." No, we want to help them with reminders whether this be alarms on their phone, visual cues, cues from parents. I always recommend that before a child is 18, parents are going to need to be involved. And of course, we can encourage and hope that they will gain independence and put those steps in place, but they should be involved. And if developmentally they're younger, then involvement will continue beyond 18. But of course, this should always be a conversation with the medication provider, so you can figure out what's best for your own child's needs. Thank you.