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Wait what? That works??
If they’ll hold the pill in their mouth… Mine will spit if it is even a tiny bit sour or bitter.
Serious question - since when do pills have taste?
I’m with you. They exist, but I definitely haven’t had one in a lonnng time.
I mean, if you tried to chew them thatd be a different story. Don’t do that.
Some prescriptions and a good chunk of supplements have a taste.
Yeah, my blood pressure meds are pressed tablets that start dissolving right away and are extremely bitter. Not antibiotics bitter (thank god!), but still extremely unpleasant.
The cheap Walmart ibuprofen tastes like chalk or you don’t immediately swallow it
My Adderall comes in 2 forms: overly sweet & the worst thing that’s ever been in my mouth
Capsules don’t, tho
I used to take my cat to an old country horse vet. On one visit she had to get a pill of some sort and I told the vet that my cat hated pills and it wouldn’t be possible to get one down her throat. He said “son, I’ve been a vet for over 50 years and I’ve never had a cat that I couldn’t pill.” He couldn’t get the pill down her throat and had to give her a shot instead. I’ve never been so proud. RIP Martha, miss you girl.
Sometimes vets never listen, even though you told them exactly how your pet will behave.
Does this work on human children, or just cats?
I don’t think it works on cats :(
You throw it in their mouths and rub under the lower mandible until it goes down. It’s not too hard, assuming your cat isn’t an asshole.
That’s a mighty big assumption
Was going to say the same thing.
Im one of the lucky few where my cat just eats pills out of my hand like a treat. He is not smart enough to know the difference.
Oh wow, I’m gonna try this next time I need to down an ibuprofen
My trick is to tap my upper and lower teeth together to poorly simulate chewing (avoiding the pill, of course) and then I’d just naturally feel the urge to swallow.
Aight, lots of discussion on tricks here - adding one to the pile.
Use food.
Especially fibery food that still has some texture when you chew it up, vs something like a banana that just chews down to a liquid anyway.
Think like Triscuits or something.
Anywho, add food of choice to your face. Chew it up until you’re ready to swallow- but don’t swallow. Grab your pill, and shove it right into the middle of your mass of Triscuit paste. Then swallow.
The mass of food will just push the pill right along with it - you’ll barely even notice it’s there.
People struggle with liquids because they just wash around the pill without pushing it.
Food is king for pill taking.
Apple sauce or ice cream work well
Yeah I would probably start there instead of triscuit paste but, hey, everyone has their own style!
your mass of Triscuit paste
Thanks for ruining Triscuits for me.
… Do y’all really have that much of a problem popping pills?
I certainly don’t. I can easily put five or ever more pills in my mouth at the same time and swallow them all with one sip of water. I’m not even sure how I do that. They just all kinda align and slide down.
This thread has me questioning my propensity for empathy. I never for a minute imagined, outside of folks with medical issues, that it was a problem. This has me interested. If I were a scientist and not just some guy, I’d study it.
As a kid, I had difficulty, as kids tend to. One day, as others have mentioned, it clicked, and sometimes I have several pills in there at once; e.g., Mucinex 12h, two Sudafed, two ibuprofen is a common combination on the rare occasion I’m sick.
As a kid, I recall practicing on Kraft Deluxe Mac n cheese, swallowing without chewing, and I think, from there, it just kind of developed. So load up on Kraft Deluxe, folks, cheese up that esophagus.
Some people do it voluntarily.
Why fly a kite when you can just pop a pill?
It took me until my 20s before I could swallow pills without gagging and spitting out water.
Then one day something just clicked and since then, no problem.
I can do one, two or even eight at a time like it’s nothing.You deepthroated for the first time didn’t you
I can take pills but not a toothbrush.
Same lol. Every morning my gf laughs at me cause I’m in there insert gagging sounds sounding like I’m in a cheap amateur porno lmao.
Gotta get the tongue clean though! Feel like that’s where all the breath stinks is! Lol
You can just train away your gag reflex.
They make actual scrapers for that.
True! I just use the tongue scrubber on my toothbrush haha
I can suck cock but have to push pills down with my fingers
You just like gagging yourself dl
As a kid? Yes. I have a very strong gag reflex. The doctor using a tongue depressor would make me retch. I had trouble swallowing meat if it was tough or fatty. I would have to chew it for a very long time before I could swallow it. Fatty bacon I usually just had to give up and spit out.
It took me until I was a teenager until I could swallow a pill. I practiced on swallowing blueberries.
Now I have no problems, I can swallow a handful of pills and I’m a vegetarian.
That’s crazy. I can swallow tons of pills in one go but the idea of swallowing a blueberry whole sounds tough.
I’ve always had a very sensitive gag reflex, to the point it’s difficult to clean my tongue while brushing.
Never in my life had issues swallowing pills. Absolutely no idea how I got one without the other
Same. I gag brushing my tongue every time. I’ve actually vomited a bit a few times which totally ruins the point of brushing the teeth. No problem with pills.
Every day I’m amazed by the most mundane shit that Lemmings somehow struggle with
It’s surprisingly common considering how ubiquitous pills are, not just for the oddballs here
When I got married and had a kid, I discovered “trouble swalling pills” is indeed a phenomenon.
I have been taking pills since I was five thanks to my temperature-based allergy. I just salivate when I see a pill. It’s quite inconvenient when I am handling my child or spouse’s medicine.
Yeah I’ve had daily meds since I was 6. I was confused when I first met people who couldn’t take pills
I mean yeah, I also had an aversion to swallowing pills when I hadn’t done it before. But I got used to it pretty quickly, using this method specifically. I just assumed everybody did it like this
I couldn’t swallow pills until after my SECOND child. Just stuck to liquids when available.
The only temperature-based allergy I know of is cold urticaria and I’m unaware of medication for it, but word love to know if that’s not the case.
Yup, and it’s just regular antihistamines. I took seldane for a while until they took that off the market, then it was on to reactine. It was a bit of a slap in the face when the reactine became non-prescription, and therefore somehow not medically necessary according to my insurance provider.
I’m more confused about how rolling a kid up in a blanket would improve the situation of them not being able to swallow a pill. I can understand how getting them to take something chewable or a liquid that tastes like shit would be difficult but swallowing a pill? You literally just put it in your mouth and swallow a drink of water, you can’t even tell it’s there really… I was ecstatic when I got old enough for them to stop giving me chewable medicine. I still can’t eat applesauce because of my grandma mixing some antibiotic I had to take with it when I was 7.
LPT: Fill your mouth with water, hold your head back and open mouth. drop the pill in. close mouth and swallow the water.
you wont even feel the pill.
by throwing the pill into the water already in your mouth instead of putting itin your mouth and then drinking the water, the pill wont have a chance to stick to your tongue or gums and release its bitter/nasty taste.
Put pill in mouth, swallow pill. People hate this one weird trick!
I don’t like to do it, but sometimes I gotta take a pill and have no beverage.
Yeah! This is it. The amount of people who just put the pill in their mouth and THEN drink water surprises me. Every time I’ve done that with a specific type of pill, it would leave some extremely bitter powder on my tongue! Easily avoidable by putting water in first.
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I misheard my mom and started putting them under my tongue as a kid then using the water to swish it down. Works relatively well
I feel like putting the pills in your mouth first works a bit better when you have a bunch of pills to take. I take four pills every morning (ADHD, antidepressant, allergy pill, and L-methylfolate because of dumb genes) and I’ve tried both ways. The pills-first approach is just faster and easier for me, and I don’t mind the taste. Hell, I weirdly like the taste of my ADHD meds 😅 I will absolutely do the water first thing when taking something disgusting though. I tend to close my mouth and tilt my head forward rather than back, however.
I don’t know why my client posted this comment 4 times… Sorry about that.
Lol. I hear ya, but I have taken like 6 pills at once using the water first method. That’s fair, to each their own!
I never tried that and, judging from the comments here, it’s probably not going to work if I need to swallow pills. I can remember having 3 incidents where that murderous piece of shit tried to go down the breathing hole
I’d try putting in water first, holding it in, leaning your head back slightly, then putting in the pill and swallowing immediately
If that doesn’t work, you can try the food method that someone mentioned above
You’re trying too hard.
For me, it wasn’t about swallowing the pill, it was a psychological thing about not chewing. I’d just take a small bite of bread, banana, or other soft food, chew a few times, pop the pill in and then swallow the food with the pill.
No. Mouth full of drink as if going to gargle. Tilt head back, open mouth, drop in pill(s), IMMEDIATELY swallow, AND chase with more drink.
Dear god, its like some people want to taste our crimes against nature.
This…works less well with kids.
damn, you beat me to it. can confirm, it works like a charm
Someone already said it, but tilting your chin down opens your throat, while tilting your head back will constrict
Tucking your chin down while swallowing pills is best
Also many pills (especially capsules, where the coating and filling are separate vs tablets that are compressed as one) float, so counterintuitively, tilting your head forward actually brings the capsule up to the back of your throat!
… and I already replied to them. Enjoy spilling drink and pills everywhere.
The only pill you need to swallow is the truth
Sure. Fuck sincerity, fuck honest advice. This guy didn’t specify exactly how one should swallow, so he’s a lying liar! You got me!
What exactly are you imagining?
People that are capable of realizing I didn’t narrate the entire process of swallowing. IDK, if you’re imagining I would even put into words specific movements of the tongue, lips, jaw, etc, you’re opinion of my instructional skills is way off.
They are trying to be funny by playing on the fact that the person they are replying to didn’t include closing their mouth in the list of steps.
thank you
Tilting your head down can actually help with swallowing by a lot.
Insert pill. Put liquid in mouth. Tilt chin down. Swallow.
Source: have dysphagia, can only swallow pills and other hard substances by tilting head down
some pills have nasty taste if they touch your gums or mouth. fill in water first, then pill, then swallow.
Guess that just didn’t bother me, but yeah, which you do first didn’t make a difference in terms of swallowing. It’s all about tilting the chin down to open the throat.
It varies a lot from person to person. The only way I was able to learn to swallow pills at first was to deliberately swallow air, like you do if you want to make yourself burp. Head forward? Head back? Both interfered.
At least close your mouth first, unless you like spilling drink+pills everywhere.
Pretty sure tilting the head down is implied in my personal swallowing process. I’m not sure I can actually swallow anything with my chin up.
They’re talking about a way to prevent aspiration with dysphagia by tilting the chin down to the chest.
Tilt head back, open mouth, drop in pill(s), IMMEDIATELY swallow
Definitely not implied. I thought your entire point was keeping the head tilted back.
Good for you. Only reason to tilt the head back is to not spill. Closing the mouth fixes that. This is “pill taking recommendations”, not “re-thinking swallowing-in-general 101”
I’ve been taking 6+ pills a day for years and still can’t get myself to swallow them. I just chew everything. Tasty painkillers and caffeine.
And these goddamn pharma companies putting binders and shit in so you can’t medically boof em.
BTDT. Time-release is too useful though.
My only time-release capsule is filled with little beads, I just pop it open and eat the beads like pop rocks
O_O
(゜o゜;
I am intensely displeased with this comment. I don’t know why this got to me so much more than the other degenerate shit I’ve seen around, but this gave me a pretty violent physical reaction. Maybe it’s because I’ve been taking time release capsule meds for 15ish years now? Whatever the cause, you should be proud because that was well written.
I’m speaking my truth. XR Adderall, crack em open and pour em on me tongue. The caviar of stimulants
Former pharmacy tech here, 8 years compounding pharmacy.
Get a mortar and pestle, crush it up and put it in whatever.
If not then use yogurt or something gooey.
Great for methylfenidaat…
Using yogurt, pudding, or apple sauce were always winners for me to get the kids to take pills.
By the way if anyone’s curious yes you can crush up Viagra, put it in Vaseline, and use it as a cream.
Yes you can put it there, and yes it’s effective.
I’ve done it multiple times for people that would regularly go over that five hour limit, because skin absorption is slower and weaker than intestinal absorption.
Aren’t there slow-release pills that shouldn’t be crushed?
Yes. Most ER/XR/CD/EC shouldn’t be. There’s some others that shouldn’t. Good to ask a pharmacist.
Only EC(Enteric Coated) pills and capsule interiors cause they protect the pill against stomach acid until it reaches the intestine.
If it’s got a shiny exterior like an Advil it’s Enteric coated. If it’s a capsule with EC granules you’re gonna have a hard time crushing it anyway.
You’re probably not going to have a problem with those though because Enteric coating is super sweet and capsules are usually neutral in flavor, so there’s not much reason to try and hide the bitterness. For everything else there’s no real functional difference between a smashed pill and a whole pill in your stomach.
Edit: You should definitely consult with a pharmacist or even better a compounding pharmacist about this if you’re not sure what kind of pill you’re looking at, though.
There’s ER and other formulations you wouldn’t want to crush, it’s not just EC to avoid.
So it technically depends on the extended release formulation, so from a layman’s perspective, yes you should likely ask your doctor or even better ask a compounding pharmacist (as a general rule if you have questions about medication you’re better off asking a pharmacist rather than a doctor.)
Given that…
From a technical perspective the only definition of extended release is a lag phase after ingestion. This means there’s no immediately discernable difference between delayed release through anti-dissolution coating and slow dissolution through a hard-to-dissolve substance. (Even when you read something like two different pills saying delayed release vs extended release, there’s no legal difference and the FDA doesn’t give a fuck about the naming. This might be different in other countries so Americans benefit from other Country’s health systems in naming. I’m not sure.)
Coating-type pill formulations should not be crushed.
Suspension-type formulations actually can be crushed to a certain degree. Typically humans aren’t going at the pills like crazy in a mortar and pestle and don’t have the strength to separate the suspension properly so it’ll still have a slowed release effect. But yea if you smash them too hard then yea you can actually mess up the way that works.
I would suggest you [the reader] ask your doctor before actually doing this, just so you don’t accidentally overdose someone (especially kids, who are more sensitive to dosage)
(I am not a doctor)
Yea I should have put an asterisk.
I’d go further and say you should ask a pharmacist about questions like these. Even better is to ask a compounding pharmacist, as a doctor or retail pharmacist might just recite the pharmacopeia to you while a compounding pharmacist will probably explain in more detail (likely as a play to offer their services lol).
As a kid the bitterness of the crushed pill made me gag, even when mixed in something sweet like jam. Maybe my folks just needed to dilute it more with like an entire bowl of ice cream or something but I remember throwing up more than once because of the disgusting taste.
This is because Mary Poppins lied to us. It isn’t a spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down, but something with a bit of salt in addition to that sugar. Salt masks bitterness.
meanwhile I chewed grapefruit and pomelo peels after eating the juice part, chewed whatever pills were given to me, chewed single coffee beans, other weird shit. I don’t have the addiction any more after hitting my head a few more times.
toothpase though… somehow all of it fucks me up to varying degrees. I have settled on two that give me heartburn even if im super careful not to swallow any. the rest make me throw up or feel really not good.
Are you… Ok?
Full blown Kermit freakout in that last panel!
My cat is the best in that regard: either he eats the pills straight or off my hand or I put it on the floor and put his favorite creamy treat on top
I just slip it in the corner of his mouth, right on top of his tongue. Then I give him his favorite treat, kibble fresh out of the bowl.
lucky you, my dog isn’t like that. i either have to trick him with cheese or shove it down his throat and hold his mouth closed until he swallows.
Am I the only one who hates jokes where the entire setup is “These kids I chose to have sure are a pain in the ass!”
Sure are.
I feel like “chose to have” is a bit strong when “chose not to abort” might be more accurate…
Why are people talking about cats? That’s not how you get a cat to take a pill.
