ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how to collaborate with patients and their families about medication. The medicine can be explained in many ways. We can use metaphors or refer to insider knowledge from other families. We find that local or lived experience knowledge is often more helpful than biomedical explanations. Most doctors use a standard checking chart for registering adverse effects. We can create a similar standard checking charts for specific idiosyncratic preferred effects of the medicine. At the medical check-ups, we can co-assess whether the medicine is helpful according to the patient's personal list of problems and goals. In this way, a decision about medication becomes more qualified. Stories describe how co-exploration enables an understanding of symptoms and the effects of the medicine. The ensuing co-deciding with the family which symptoms they want the medicine to alleviate, creates the best starting point in determining how and when to start, continue, and cease medicating the child.
