Full blown Kermit freakout in that last panel!
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.
... Do y'all really have that much of a problem popping pills?
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
a lot of you here missed the point that this was how to get KIDS to swallow the pills. not you.
Same thing
Oh wow, I'm gonna try this next time I need to down an ibuprofen
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.
can't even get my adult partner to take pills normally. It's soo ridiculous the hoops a person would go through to avoid a slight bitter taste.
For me it’s the size. Can not really trick my body to just swallow. „But that’s huge! We have to chomp on it to break it down! Trying to kill yourself by choking?“
For normal pills I don't even need water for pills. I just swallow. My partner always makes me drink it afterward cause you are supposed to.
But those monster size ones! I'm like wtf why not make it 2 smaller one jerks!
I'm a 34 y/o man and I need tricks to swallow pills. It has nothing to do with taste at all, it's about capability. I actually have a condition that makes it difficult to swallow.
It’s soo ridiculous the hoops a person would go through to avoid a slight bitter taste.
I figured out a fix for the avoidance of horrible tasting medicine:
The simplest and easiest way to use it is with an ice cube or two. Get the pill/liquid medicine you have to get down your throat ready, your ice cubes, a cup of water and stand in front of a sink. Put the ice in your mouth and let it sit on your tongue for 15 to 60 seconds. Yes, its going to be cold and slightly uncomfortable. The longer you can stand it the better your result. After this time has passed with the ice in your mouth your tongue will be numb. Spit out the ice in the sink, you'll have 5-15 seconds where you can't taste a goddamn thing which is plenty of time. At this point you could put the most disgusting flavored thing (sour, bitter, etc) and you won't be able to taste it. Quickly get the medicine in your mouth and chug that full glass of water. Taste will start to return within about 3 or 5 seconds of chugging water, so make sure you drink enough to clear your mouth of whatever bad flavor you're trying to avoid.
This whole process adds perhaps 2 minutes tops to taking medicine. For those that have difficulty this is a tiny fraction of time usually spent avoiding taking it, or the recovery process for taking it normally.
If you need more incentive (especially for kids) instead of using ice cubes and spitting that out. You can use ice cream or milk shakes and just swallow those. Same rules apply: put the ice cream in your mouth and let it sit on your tongue as long as its frozen. Its a little more involved than ice cubes because you might have to have two or three spoonfuls to get your tongue numb.
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.
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.
Aren't there slow-release pills that shouldn't be crushed?
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.
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.
I'm surprised by the amount of people in this thread having trouble taking pills. It's not really something I've ever thought about or heard other people struggle with but hey there it is
Why are people talking about cats? That's not how you get a cat to take a pill.
when i was in icu for 10 weeks, i learned this trick:
put the whole load of pills in your mouth, no water needed. then swallow them.
i dont know how i do it, i dont know why i couldnt do it before, i dont know how to explain it.
but i definitly can swallow half a handfull of pills just like that.
i learned it because that whole routine with glass of water and one pill at a time just was a PITA, when you are in icu for a good reason.
Why would you do one pill at a time? Just put em all in and wash the pills down with a glass of water.
I can't swallow pills without water. They get stuck in the back of my throat.
Yep. I learned I can swallow about 20 pills in one gulp of water. Sorry for all you folks out there that say you can't swallow pills, it's a psychological issue.
Does this work on human children, or just cats?
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
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
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