My son is 2 years old and we have tried many different ways of giving him his medicine. I would say just try a lot of different things until you find what works for you. Then, even when you find what works, that will probably change often. When my son was a baby, I used to crush his florinef and give it to him with a little applesauce. I also tried the "dissolve in needless syringe" method and that worked well too. As he got older I stopped crushing the Florinef and just gave it to him whole on a spoon with applesauce. He switched from Cortef liquid to Cortef pills this past March (about time!) and I started out crushing the Cortef and giving it to him with a little "all fruit" (the no sugar added jam stuff). Then one day I asked him if he wanted it "big". Since he is into anything "big" he wanted to try it. HE took the Cortef pill whole. Now he just chews them up. At night I still give it to him on a spoon with the All Fruit and then a sip of water to wash it down. As far as the dosing goes - we have reduced my son's dose 3 times since he switched to the pills. While on the liquid he was on 11 mg/day. Now on the pills he has been reduced to 7.5 mg/day. I hadn't heard that the pills were "stonger". I just think the liquid is so inconsistent it takes more of it to achieve worse control. Hope this helps. Good luck