Can you toss 'em down without thinking about it?
Do they have to be riding a wave of water?
Does your mom have to hide it in your food?
I couldn’t swallow pills until I was in my 20’s. If I couldn’t get medicine in a chewable or liquid form, I just didn’t take. Good thing, I have a high pain threshold.
Now, when I swallow a pill, I place it under my tongue (so I don’t taste it), then drink some water. I hold the water in my mouth, then scoop the pill up with my tongue, and swallow.
If the pill is uncoated, I put a thin layer of vaseline on it, so it doesn’t try to disolve on it’s way down.
I couldn’t swallow pills until I was in my late teens and even then it took several attempts. For ever one pill I successfully swallowed there was at least one that was spit into the sink, partially dissolved.
Now, as long as I’m taking one or two small, coated pills, I have no problems. If I’m taking more than two and at least one’s uncoated or very big, I have to take a big gulp of water (or juice), put the first pill in and swallow. I have to wait about a minute before I can take the next one. And forget about taking pills first thing in the morning - it just ain’t gonna happen.
I had a LOT of trouble taking pills when I was young. I’d have to use a lot of water, and even sometimes have them crushed for me beforehand. Luckily I never really got sick or needed to take pills, so it wasn’t too big a problem.
Things improved when I got tonsilitis (the one and only time) when I was in grade 7. I had to take several (4?) penicillin pills a day, for 10 days. After about a day, I learned to swallow those pills! Since then, I have no problems, and I actually often just swallow pills dry. I’m on birth control, and I never need water for those, but they are very small. I occasionally take sleeping pills, and they are somewhat large gel-caps, and while I can take them dry, I don’t like the sensation of them in my throat, so I tend to take water. The anit-histamines I occasionally take aren’t coated, and I tend to use water for those simply because the taste in the few seconds it takes to get enough saliva ready to swallow is absolutely horrible.
Funny story: my brother tore up his knee in a roadbike accident when he was about 10 or so…he had to take several large doses of anitbiotics for a while. One day, about a week into the treatment, my cousin gave him a Chiclets (sp?) gum, and he popped in into his mouth and promptly swallowed it, unchewed, on reflex. Being 8 myself, my cousin 7…this caused riotous laughter for a good day or more!
I’ve had to take a lot of pills over the years, some of them huge. The best method I’ve found it to take a mouthful of water, then drop in the pill/pills and swallow, they go straight down not even touching the tongue.
This method is almost fail-proof for those who have trouble swallowing pills. Put the pills in your mouth, toss them back, then chug about half a bottle of soda. Not a can, a bottle. I’ve never seen this fail.
Chefguy, my father taught me exactly the same way! (Daddy?) I could never take pills until I was about 12, and at his house, with very bad cramps. He was a bit uncomfortable, so he slapped down some aspirin and a 2 liter of diet coke, and said chug.
Took a couple of attempts, but I’ve never had a problem swallowing pills since.
My method. Water first, hold in my mouth, throw in the pills, and swallow. The larger ones are harder, but several at a time doesn’t seem to be a problem. I can do them dry if necessary, but the swig, throw approach is preferred.
Just pop 'em in and take a drink of water (or whatever else is handy). I ysed to hate pills when I was younger, still don’t particularly like the, though I can generally deal with them. The only time I ever have a problem now is when I’m feeling sick (like I’m gonna throw up), and I’m taking two rather large pills. First one goes down alright, but the second one can be a doozy. Since I don’t like swallowing pills to begin with and I’m feeling sick, the feeling of pills going down can actually make me puke. And for some reason, it seems the only time I ever have to take two pills at once is when I’m feeling sick :S Fortunately, it doesn’t happen often.
My mom got sick of my brother and I having problems with pills (we both got the mumps when I was about six) and had to take these four inch (probably smaller, but I was little then) penicillin pills that can’t be crushed or cut in any way.
She made me practice by swallowing m&ms with a glass of milk. The m&ms were fine. It’s the milk that made me gag.
As for now, I have to have water or something to down them with, but in general pills don’t bother me, especially as I take two every morning.
Depends on whether it’s a pill or a capsule. With a pill, I get a mouthful of water, look up, put the pill in my mouth, and swallow. Capsules float, so I can’t swallow them this way- instead, I get a mouthful of water, put in the capsule, look down, which causes the capsule to float to the back of my throat, and swallow.
When I was eight, I had to have a root canal, so my mom decided I had to learn to swallow pills. She would give me a bag of M&M’s, and I was supposed to swallow half, and I could eat the other half. It worked. I can swallow them dry, any size, though I prefer it with water.
I’ve had to take pills since I was in second grade (ADHD-inattentive subtype), and I have always had to take them with water (toss pill into mouth, take a swig of water, swallow), one or two at a time. I can never swallow them dry or with water from anything other than a bottle/cup (with a few exceptions, including fast purified water faucets with large throughput). I’ve never really had trouble swallowing pills, as long as I had water or some other fluid, which is good because I’ve had to take some pill or another (usually at least two different ones) every day for most of my life, plus the vitamin B-12 pills I took whenever I binged on nitrous. (Note: Nitrous oxide as a drug is illegal in some locales.)
