“Each person that has difficulty has different reasons,”
September 22, 2015 4:21 PM   Subscribe

Can’t Swallow a Pill? There’s Help for That [New York Times]
Most children start swallowing pills around age 10, said Dr. Tanya Altmann, a pediatrician in Calabasas, Calif., and a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics. And 20 percent to 40 percent are unable to swallow a standard-size pill or capsule, according to a recent study in the journal Pediatrics. [...] Many never outgrow the problem.
Harris Interactive reported that 40 percent of American adults have difficulty swallowing pills, even though most have no problems with food or liquids. Eighty percent said they did not like the feeling of having a pill stuck in their throat, 48 percent said pills caused a bad aftertaste, and 32 percent said pills caused them to gag. A study of 1,051 adults in The European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology produced similar numbers: 30 percent had difficulty swallowing pills, and almost 10 percent stopped taking the medications as a result.
posted by Fizz (73 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
💊
posted by Fizz at 4:24 PM on September 22, 2015 [9 favorites]


Water in mouth first, then pill, then more water to swallow. Only thing that ever worked for me, and it took the threat of sepsis to get me to figure it out.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:25 PM on September 22, 2015 [13 favorites]


Place pill inside cupcake. Eat cupcake.
posted by smidgen at 4:27 PM on September 22, 2015 [5 favorites]


Pill first, then water.

Side note, my mother has had difficulty with swallowing pills her entire life. She does this thing where she tosses her head back and shakes her head and makes these odd throat noises. It's the only thing that works for her. We've googled various methods and suggestions that other people have made (many of which are mentioned in the linked article). She has her own way, it sort of works, it just freaks all of us out when she does it in front of us. To each their own, I guess.
posted by Fizz at 4:28 PM on September 22, 2015


Choking on pills has almost killed my dad on more than one occasion (he's a one-lunger and if one lodges in the wrong place it's a dire situation). He now halves them and downs each with yoghurt which works well, although there is one HUGE pill that simply cannot be halved - it's completely indestructable as near as I can tell. Damn thing is the size of a football.

And, being old, he takes tons of pills - can't wait for the day when folks can take one pill that contains all the medications (could be in liquid form!) on demand from the doctor.

Handling like 20 pills bottles every meal seems so inefficient and error prone.
posted by parki at 4:30 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


No problem here. I can do 3 or 4 at once, without water.
posted by Uncle Grumpy at 4:33 PM on September 22, 2015 [5 favorites]


Here's a Weird Old Trick that I recently saw on Reddit (I think): make a fist with your thumb on the inside - a loose fist is fine, and I don't think it matters which hand you use - and keep your hand like that as you swallow. It's not totally foolproof, but it surprisingly helps a lot.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:34 PM on September 22, 2015


1. Get a migraine.
2. Have medication that makes it less terrible.
3. Knowing that there is nothing worse on this earth than a migraine, do whatever is necessary to swallow the pill.
4. There is no step 4.
posted by Aizkolari at 4:36 PM on September 22, 2015 [9 favorites]


I did grow out of my childhood difficulty swallowing pills. Getting a mouthful of water and tipping my head back so the pill fell to the back of my throat worked as a kid - also kept it off my tongue so I didn't taste the coating. Now I can mostly swallow them dry, but I still do that trick with some pills that seem to stick in my mouth.
posted by muddgirl at 4:39 PM on September 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


I possess this issue and have since I was super little! It got even worse after I had my tonsils removed because I had to relearn how to swallow and I still don't totally have it under control. It's been years. So obnoxious. Everything should be a gummi-vite IMO.
posted by Hermione Granger at 4:40 PM on September 22, 2015


For me it's just the big chunky pills, which most vitamins seem to come in. Advil, fine. Sleeping pills, fine. But vitamins... Can't they make them smaller and I'll just take 2? This is why I still eat gummies. Or, sometimes vitamin-protein shakes although I'm not sure how good those actually are for you.
posted by picklenickle at 4:41 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I blame floating pills for the periodic pillgags. I am a-OK 'til one of the rascals floats up and hits my soft palete. Then it's a gamble on whether I'll acidentally swallow it or cough everything out of my mouth.

Pills simply should not float (or taste sweet, or stick to my cheeks).
posted by Matt Oneiros at 4:44 PM on September 22, 2015


Water in mouth first, then pill, then more water to swallow. Only thing that ever worked for me, and it took the threat of sepsis to get me to figure it out.

THIS OH MY GOSH YES THIS

I vividly remember having horrible, long, drag-out crying fits over taking pills as a kid, well into my tween years. I couldn't do it. I choked, sputtered, even ended up somehow lodging a pill in my nose once I choked so hard, and I ended up sneezing it out partially dissolved an hour later with my nose burning furiously.

No one ever told me, and for some reason it didn't occur to me until years later when I started having to take drugs multiple times a day every day to keep myself upright, to fill my mouth with water first. That would have changed everything. I only discovered it when I had to take a dose of one of my meds in the middle of the day at school, meaning I had to use the water fountain, and I knew gravity would work against me if I didn't drink first. Immediately it was like the clouds parted and angels sang to me the Right and True path.

This is still the only way I can swallow pills. I can do a whole handful at once but only if I drink first.

Fill mouth with water, tilt head back, pop pills in, swallow everything at once, then down a full glass of water just to make sure everything moves along.
posted by phunniemee at 4:46 PM on September 22, 2015 [7 favorites]


I've got the craziest frickin' gag reflex (every time I go to the dentist I almost choke to death), and yet I've never had a problem with pills.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:48 PM on September 22, 2015


No problem here. I can do 3 or 4 at once, without water.

Yeah, this is stupid, don't do this.

My cousin (actually my cousin, this is not one of those apocryphal playground stories) used to take pills that way until one of them, unbeknownst to him, clung to the wall of his esophagus instead of traveling down to his stomach since it didn't have enough liquid to lubricate it. He went to sleep and the pill sat there all night and dissolved. Ate into his esophagus like acid--he had to have throat surgery and it took him months to recover from it.
posted by phunniemee at 4:49 PM on September 22, 2015 [10 favorites]


I was four or five when the Chicago Tylenol murders happened (and lived in Chicago), and between the incessant news coverage and total local hysteria, it made a HUGE impact on me. But since I was four-ish, and got it mixed up in my head with fears of razor blades in Halloween candy (how else could something swallowed kill you?), I ended up with an ABSOLUTE TERROR of swallowing pills with no rational source, convinced that if I either swallowed them incorrectly or got a "bad pill," it would slit my throat open from the inside and kill me. Of course I knew this made no sense by the time I was 10, but the fear was so vivid that I could. not. swallow pills. I was still taking liquid kiddie antibiotics at 16. I had complete hysterics when I was about 14 and HAD to take a pill for something. I was JUST TERRIFIED.

Eventually I learned but it was always a huge ordeal and I hated it and got really anxious whenever I had to take a pill. Then in law school the Tylenol murders were in one of my casebooks and I went HOLY SHIT I REMEMBER THIS, THIS IS WHY I THOUGHT PILLS WOULD KILL ME!

Never really had a problem since then, except with the big horse pills that are hard to swallow anyway. But once I realized where the fear came from, it just ... went away.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:51 PM on September 22, 2015 [8 favorites]


^ I can de-urban-myth phunniemee's story even further -- that happened to me, personally. I was lucky and escaped without surgery, but I couldn't eat or drink for days and I don't know if I've ever been in worse pain. Don't do pills without water, kids.
posted by saturday_morning at 4:52 PM on September 22, 2015 [5 favorites]


PS, chewable kiddie Tylenol takes effect faster than adult tylenol you swallow in a pill, and you can take a much lower dose. Regular-strength tablets are 325 mg and the adult dose is two for 650 mg ... kiddie chewables are 80 mg each. Sometimes I'll get a toothache and I'll take two kiddie tablets (160 mg) and that solves it faster and with way less tylenol, plus no pill-swallowing.

(Kiddie tylenol is considerably more expensive than adult tylenol, though, I guess is the tradeoff.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:59 PM on September 22, 2015 [3 favorites]


I wasn't able to swallow pills until college, when I decided to get a box of Tic-Tacs and practice until I damn well could. It helps to (a) place it on the back of my tongue and (b) swallow it with plenty of water. I see some people saying that a mouthful of water beforehand helped them, but for me that just made the pill float around instead of going down my throat.
posted by Rangi at 5:01 PM on September 22, 2015


Yeah, having an ibuprofen stick and having to urgently get to a drink as the sugar coating melts off and it turns to bitter pain is why I now wait until I have a drink in my hand.

My mom had me practice with beans (bonus: I didn't like beans, so got credit for eating "one bite" by practicing swallowing 5 beans whole, one at a time), so I was pretty well over my pill anxiety by 6 or so. Apparently in situations where kids have serious medical requirements and pill-taking is non-negotiable, they start with sprinkles, then Nerds, Smarties, Skittles, and probably jellybeans or similar for the really big pills.
posted by Lyn Never at 5:05 PM on September 22, 2015 [3 favorites]




I'm afraid if I analyze how I swallow pills that I'll lose my mojo and will have to revert to using yogurt.
posted by persona au gratin at 5:05 PM on September 22, 2015 [4 favorites]


Head down for pills that float, head back for pills that don't.
posted by emelenjr at 5:10 PM on September 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


The only time I took pills that I remember was when I had a bacterial infection that did a number on my throat. The antibiotic pills were the size the tip of my pinky, hard edged (YOU HAD ONE JOB) and drinking cold or room temperature water made me very uncomfortable, while warm water makes me vomit (in any situation).
It was not pleasant, but the fever was worse.
posted by lmfsilva at 5:12 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I couldn't swallow them whole as a kid, so I ground up the damn bitter things by chewing them, and then washed them down with water. Probably lost some of the medicine in my teeth, but it was the most macho thing I ever did as a kid.
posted by benito.strauss at 5:14 PM on September 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


My son has ADHD - severe ADHD - life crippling ADHD. We started with very small 'bread pills' at age 4 - practicing. At 5, we began real meds, but he couldn't quite swallow a pill properly, so we had to get a pretty ineffective med, break it open, and sprinkle the contents in his yogurt. By 5 1/2 though, he was swallowing bread pills like a champ, and that allowed us the option of converting to a much better medication for him...

I remember the third day he was swallowing full-sized bread pills properly. Our whole family was high fiving. He worked so hard for about a year learning how to do it - and it is a skill that he demonstrates three times a day, and will continue to do so until that part of his brain matures enough to function independently.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:16 PM on September 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


♪ Head bent over / Raised up posterior ♪
posted by Johann Georg Faust at 5:19 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I've reached the point that I can handle small pills with the water first technique, but otherwise, it just doesn't happen. Last time I needed antibiotics I had to take them in liquid form, which led to an awkward conversation when the pharmacist asked, in a cloying voice, "so, this is for your little girl?"

Needless to say, when I recently had a prescription for antihistamines, I was really excited to see that you could buy them in melt form.
posted by thomas j wise at 5:20 PM on September 22, 2015


Sometimes a pill gets stuck, or it just feels like a pill is stuck, but when that happens, I eat some tiny thing of food after to dislodge it.
posted by kafziel at 5:21 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


Send your kids off to a few raves, they'll be dry-swallowing pills in no time.
posted by Blue Meanie at 5:23 PM on September 22, 2015 [4 favorites]


I think I'm part of about a third of the population that doesn't have a gag reflex, so I can literally take a handful of assorted pills, sans water, and knock them down without blinking. Given my daily pill intake, this is a useful skill.

I never really thought about how shitty my conditions would be without the ability to take pills without a problem.
posted by Ferreous at 5:24 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm just surprised that anyone around still remembers the Tylenol scare ......
posted by blucevalo at 5:26 PM on September 22, 2015


That was the beginning of the packaging we all hate now.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 5:29 PM on September 22, 2015


The article does not mention the reason I had a lifelong issue with pill-swallowing. One that landed me in the emergency room a couple of times - once in an ambulance. Apparently, I had a thing called a Schatzki Ring (warning - anatomical pictures) in my esophagus. While I was under twilight anaesthesia, they sent a scope down there, followed by a balloon which they inflated to break up the ring. Now I can swallow pills!

Seems more invasive than practicing with bread balls but it worked for me.
posted by rekrap at 5:31 PM on September 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's easy. Just have someone come over and poke them way back in your mouth and then hold it closed and rub your throat until you swallow. Then tell you what a good boy you are, yes you are.
posted by sexyrobot at 5:33 PM on September 22, 2015 [33 favorites]


I can swallow pills just fine but once in high school I nearly choked to death while trying to swallow a gumball whole. It got stuck and I couldn't breathe, but before I had a chance to die my esophagus crushed it and I could swallow and breathe again plus I tasted a puff of stale minty air from the gumball's hollow center.

My problem with gummy vitamins is they're so delicious that it's hard for me not to eat way way way too many. Especially the calcium ones.
posted by aubilenon at 5:38 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I remember the Tylenol murders; not as they were happening, because I was way too young, but they were newsworthy enough to still be talked about years after the fact. I don't remember how or when I learned about them, but I was young enough that I got the impression that people randomly poisoning products on the shelf was a common thing. (This may also have gotten conflated with warnings about unwrapped Halloween candy.)

To this day, the idea of someone randomly putting cyanide in a bottle of pills or bag of chips is one of the things that takes up space in my brain when my OCD's running high. I know that this is really low on the list of possible disasters to happen to me, but my brain won't let go of it.
posted by Metroid Baby at 5:41 PM on September 22, 2015


Pill under the tongue, then take a swig of water and swallow. For whatever reason, this seems to make the pill go right down, every time.

For the medical journals, this is now dubbed the "Sutt Technique".
posted by sutt at 5:49 PM on September 22, 2015


FOOD.

I don't understand why more people don't use food instead of water. The biggest problems people who have difficulty swallowing pills seem to encounter all relate to sensing the pill in their mouth or throat -- because pills are hard, and water is not, and so hey, wrongness. The minute the pill makes contact with anything - cheek, tongue, throat, etc., your brain just goes "nooooope that's not how water is supposed to feel," and it's gag time. (This was me for thirty years.)

But most of us can chew and swallow large mouthfuls of food without any problem. Shove a bunch of grapes in your mouth, or a big bite of a hamburger, or whatever will give you a good mouthful of food. Chew it. Put the pill behind the food in your mouth, where you won't even feel it, out of the way of your teeth, and keep chewing. Swallow. Bam -- pill's gone without any weird "no no no don't swallow that" sensation.
posted by tzikeh at 6:09 PM on September 22, 2015 [6 favorites]


Send your kids off to a few raves, they'll be dry-swallowing pills in no time.

Huh, I remember drinking a lot of water at those
posted by clockzero at 6:13 PM on September 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


I've mentioned this before, but coating bad-tasting or likely-to-fragment or really big and friction-y pills in peanut butter has made a big difference. Thanks, dogs!
posted by vegartanipla at 6:36 PM on September 22, 2015 [3 favorites]


The one thing I do to make sure that pills go down without a hitch is to collect some saliva in my mouth and then pop the pill, but I only really need to do that if the pills are particularly large or sticky.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:45 PM on September 22, 2015


Here's a Weird Old Trick that I recently saw on Reddit (I think): make a fist with your thumb on the inside - a loose fist is fine, and I don't think it matters which hand you use - and keep your hand like that as you swallow. It's not totally foolproof, but it surprisingly helps a lot

Wait, why does this work, now?
posted by holborne at 6:46 PM on September 22, 2015


parki (and anyone with friends or family on multiple meds or with memory issues,) if you're concerned about your dad messing up his pills, have him ask the pharmacy to blister pack them. Dispill packaging makes a nice sheet with individual doses sorted by day and time - so Monday AM/PM/HS - and it's all clearly labeled. I imagine it costs extra but insurance might cover that cost if his doctor writes "please blister pack" on the package.

Here's an image you can google for more but I think that gets the idea across.

You could also just get a dosette (the same idea but rigid plastic and reusable - someone just has to fill it once a week.)
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:48 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I can dry-swallow small pills with a little saliva pretty well, but feel it for the bigger ones even with water. But, I've noticed that big gel caps go down, even dry, without that sticking feeling. Probably similar reasons to peanut butter coating.

Oh and parki -- get your dad a pill organizer. My dad's pill organizer is the size of a hardback book these days.
posted by joeyh at 6:48 PM on September 22, 2015


Water in mouth first, then pill, then more water to swallow...

Both of my kids take pills this way and, for whatever reason, it weirds me out whenever I see them do it. It just looks so wrong. I'm a "toss the pills in the mouth and take a big drink of water" person. So is my wife. I have no idea where my kids learned to take pills the way they do.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:49 PM on September 22, 2015


Wait, why does this work, now?

Sympathetic nerve pathways. It curbs the gag reflex a little bit, like how the awesomely named Jendrassik Maneuver is able to prevent the reflex tested when the doctor hits your knee with the little hammer from being stifled.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:51 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I used to have the worst time swallowing pills. Even my birth control pills (which are tiny) were a problem. Here's what I figured out works for me: get pill and water in mouth however works best for you. "Chew" the water (don't bite down on the pill, but make a few chewing motions). Swallow. No gagging. I think it's because when I've chewed up food, I'm unconsciously ready to accept swallowing a biggish thing, and really, the pill is much smaller than some of the food I swallow, post-chew. Now I can do multiple pills at once.
posted by Weeping_angel at 7:03 PM on September 22, 2015


This will change somebody's life: Try soda or carbonated water instead of flat water.
posted by ArmandoAkimbo at 7:11 PM on September 22, 2015 [3 favorites]


I'm another "water then pill, optionally more water" person. My partner can just pop pills without a problem - she was startled when she realized I couldn't. I'm glad to see I'm in good company, and it's not just that I'm some kind of mutant weirdo outlier.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:29 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I feel like this is one of those cilantro kind of things, where the having-no-problems people cannot understand the no-really-this-is-a-serious-problem people

Here's a trick that might help. First, peel a banana. Carefully push all of the pills you need to take inside the banana (you can fit a lot of pills inside one banana). Then swallow the entire banana whole.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:29 PM on September 22, 2015 [5 favorites]


This will change somebody's life: Try soda or carbonated water instead of flat water.

For me it's much better with milk, probably because of viscosity.
posted by phunniemee at 7:34 PM on September 22, 2015


"1. Get a migraine.
2. Have medication that makes it less terrible.
3. Knowing that there is nothing worse on this earth than a migraine, do whatever is necessary to swallow the pill.
4. There is no step 4."

This is why I get the sub-lingual melt in mouth migraine pills - Maxalt-ML T, which the in-sewer-ants does not cover and costs $48/melty pill but is so worth it.

My Mom was macrobiotic and vitamin supplement obsessed before it was fashionable, thus I spent my childhood choking on alfalfa smelling horse pills. I will gladly eat brown rice and steamed veggies as an adult, but keep the vitamin pills away from me!
posted by msjen at 8:15 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


Personally, I don't think I "grew out" of not being able to swallow pills.

My teenage years were when I was first able to once in a while do it, and it got better in my 20's.

For that matter, there was a similar progression to being able to take "cherry" cough syrup without vomiting.

Willpower? Practice? Certainly more than just "growing out of it".
posted by habeebtc at 8:36 PM on September 22, 2015


I had to take antibiotics pills for a month when I was about 7 and my mother put them in a small teaspoon of jam, which was a real treat and something I could certainly swallow whole without a pill, and viscous enough that it was basically the same with a pill. Of course after a month of several teaspoons of jam a day I couldn't stand the taste and stopped eating it for about a year.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 8:38 PM on September 22, 2015


Oddly, I find pills much easier to swallow if I put them under my tongue and then take a sip of water to wash them down with. I suspect not having to taste the coating helps avoid the gag reflex.
posted by wierdo at 8:41 PM on September 22, 2015


I don't want for us to take pills anymore. we're stronger and we don't need AAAAAMMM.
posted by Zerowensboring at 8:43 PM on September 22, 2015


In one thread you're complaining because predatory pricing makes pills too expensive. In another you're complaining that you can't swallow the ones you have. Make up your minds, liberals!
posted by No-sword at 9:33 PM on September 22, 2015 [3 favorites]


dry swallowing pills can lead to or exacerbate esophageal erosion which is fucking miserable and bad and you don't want it

stop dry swallowing pills 2015
posted by poffin boffin at 9:43 PM on September 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


This thread psyched me out so I failed at swallowing my allergy pill tonight. I've had 16 oz of water since and I still feel like maybe it didn't go down right. THANKS METAFILTER.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:08 PM on September 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


Do you know what's miserable? When you don't swallow a pill right and all your efforts to drink water to help it down on its way fail, and you throw it back up, but some of the barf comes out your nose and everything just starts burning, like so much burning, and you get the most horrific heartburn you've ever had.

Anyway, I'm one of the water and tip my head back people now, because I never want that to happen ever again.
posted by yasaman at 10:42 PM on September 22, 2015


One of the low points of parenthood is getting kids to take their medicine. In desperation I alternate between threats and bribes and often its a drawn-out process that leaves both the kid and me exhausted. I'll bookmark this for future reference, thanks.
posted by Harald74 at 12:28 AM on September 23, 2015


Here's a Weird Old Trick that I recently saw on Reddit (I think): make a fist with your thumb on the inside - a loose fist is fine, and I don't think it matters which hand you use - and keep your hand like that as you swallow

I have a similar trick. I find that squeezing the meaty bit of the webbing between by thumb and forefinger stops me from gagging. I have absolutely no idea if it's the placebo effect or if there's actually something in it, but it works for me. I also take a small mouthful of water before before putting the pill in and one after.
posted by imaginary_mary at 1:31 AM on September 23, 2015


Place pill inside cupcake. Eat cupcake.

The real reason diet pills don't work.
posted by biffa at 2:37 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


My son has cystic fibrosis and because the duct from the pancreas is gummed up he needs to take creon capsules whenever he eats anything with fat in it. He generally takes about 30 a day.

He started taking these when he was about 2 years old. His record is six capsules in one go on a large spoon with apple puree, or two in one go with a drink.

Of course if you're six you can manage a few more pills in one go.
posted by Stark at 2:41 AM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


Aizkolari's solution worked for me. I would literally spit pills out, but I started getting migraines in my mid-20s, and the pain was so much that I didn't really have a choice but to learn. So learn I did, and then I was able to swallow more mundane pills.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:20 AM on September 23, 2015


1. Hold pill in front teeth.
2. Take mouthful of water, but only swallow a small amount (in order to lubricate the throat).
3. Tilt head back, relax teeth (to release the pill), and swallow all remaining water.

This will wash the pill along like a Splash Mountain car, and relief will follow.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:58 AM on September 23, 2015


Oh Stark, your poor kid. Tell him the Internet thinks his pill-taking is very impressive and wishes they had been as good at pill taking as he is when they were kids.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:27 AM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


I have a similar trick. I find that squeezing the meaty bit of the webbing between by thumb and forefinger stops me from gagging. I have absolutely no idea if it's the placebo effect or if there's actually something in it, but it works for me.

I think it's just something that tricks your body into paying attention to something else? When I was little my pediatrician couldn't ever test my reflexes because I was so amped up for the little hammer to move my leg as if by magic, and then it wouldn't work and I would get frustrated and just start kicking indiscriminately, a trait I have yet to lose. So he had me press my palms together and push rhythmically like I was giving someone CPR and it successfully took my focus off the magical hammer.
posted by poffin boffin at 8:43 AM on September 23, 2015


"Eighty percent said they did not like the feeling of having a pill stuck in their throat."
What, the other twenty percent loved it?

I'm so glad that I'm OK at swallowing pills, because I have to take 3 a day that are ginormous. Even still, sometimes it takes a second attempt.

I'm kind of surprised we haven't come up with a better delivery method yet. My motivation as a kid was that if I could learn to take pills, I wouldn't have to take yucky liquid antibiotics. Banana-flavored, my ass.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:13 AM on September 23, 2015


Also, since someone mentioned birth control pills: you'd think something THAT DAMN IMPORTANT could be bigger than a grain of rice. Who hasn't dropped one and panicked till they found it five minutes later in a crack in the floorboard?

It doesn't need to be huge, but like, Advil-sized? Is that too much to ask?
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:16 AM on September 23, 2015


The post a few days ago about telling a 10-year-old girl about her HIV diagnosis included a significant part about the difficulty in getting children to swallow lots of big pills, and how part of the importance of explaining her diagnosis to her was to hopefully improve her motivation.
Chenere Evans, JJ’s psychologist, soon arrived. “You ready to work?” she asked.

JJ had never before practiced swallowing candies with a full understanding of why. Knowing, her doctors hoped, would make a difference.

“They’re so huge,” JJ said as she peered into the pill organizer’s 14 plastic containers, each side representing morning and night doses over seven days.

She started with a Certs cool mint drop. Deep breath, sip, mint, bigger sip, swallow.

She managed two more, then three Smarties.

“Next is Skittles,” Evans said.

After placing one on her tongue, JJ pressed both hands on the table and squinted at the ceiling. Three and a half minutes later, she sighed and dramatically laid her head down, as if collapsing at the end of a race.

“I’m glad you stuck with it,” Evans said.

“No more,” she said. “No more.”

One more, the psychologist pleaded and opened the organizer’s final compartment: “SAT PM.” Inside were Mike and Ikes, the largest candies Evans had but no bigger than the real medications JJ needed to take.

“It’s too big,” JJ said.

“You’re a pro at this,” Evans told her.

She slowly slid her limp hand across the table and picked a red. “If I can’t do it, I’m spitting it out.”

She sat up and opened her mouth. Water. Candy. More water. Again squinting, she crossed her arms and clenched her jaw. Just short of two minutes, JJ exhaled and pulled the candy out.

“It would not go down.”

Still, she had made progress. Both Evans and Lee congratulated her, and the psychologist asked what prize she wanted. JJ picked a bracelet-making kit.
posted by jjwiseman at 9:54 AM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


I remember the third day he was swallowing full-sized bread pills properly. Our whole family was high fiving. He worked so hard for about a year learning how to do it - and it is a skill that he demonstrates three times a day, and will continue to do so until that part of his brain matures enough to function independently.

That's fantastic. However, speaking as a 45 year old person with ADHD, he may need to take medication for the rest of his life. It's not something kids necessarily grow out of. I swallow a pill three times a day, or rather a half pill, because it's not available in 15mg.
posted by krinklyfig at 1:18 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


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