Is there anything in the universe that could mask the taste of liquid vitamins?

Mix it with a little honey.

Applesauce?
I have no idea, since I’ve never taken liquid vitamins.. but applesauce is commonly used to get pills down. It’s a good consistency for swallowing, and the sweetness might take the edge off of the vitamin taste.

@WestRiverrat Thanks! Just wondering, does this advice come from your own experience? I can’t picture honey masking this stuff (it’s strong!) but if it worked for you, then I’ll trust it!

@ANef_is_Enuf That might just work! Orrr, the mixture might be worse than the stuff alone. I’ll find out!

How about trying some juice?

A catheter with a funnel on the end?

I have never taken liquid vitamins, unless you count cod liver oil. That is what my mom mixed our medicine with when we were kids.

@zenvelo Orange juice, maybe. I had to take liquid iron a few years back and I mixed it with orange juice. The taste was still very discernible, but less horrific. XD

@ETpro What!

@WestRiverrat Okay, thanks. Honey’ll work on regular medicine, but this stuff is beastly; I’m not so sure!

Can you put them under your tongue?

With vodka, straight up, with a twist…

Vodka….?

(ahaha bill knows what’s up)

Out of curiosity, why did they give you liquid? I’ve been buying these awesome adult chewable gummy vitamins at Walgreens. It’s all I can to not to eat the whole jar while watching television.

@Mariah yeah, I was going to include a warning to only try it if you’re comfortable with the possibility that you may never want to eat applesauce again.

@Mariah Feed the tube down to your tummy and pour the vile liquid right down it. No taste. And hey, you can get used to the gag reflex with practice. Sword swallowers do. :-)

I had to take liquid vitamins as a kid and you are right; the taste is so vile I can still recall it exactly.

If you’re administering it with a measuring dropper, try to get it as close to the back of your tongue as possible where there are fewer taste receptors – directly down your throat, if you can manage it.
Follow it immediately with a shot of OJ.

@BarnacleBill has a point. I vote for the gummy chewies also.

I take chewable vitamins and it is not bad at all. I hate gummies, but I take Flintstones or chewable pregnancy vitamins for the increased iron.

If you have to take the liquid, drink it like a shot of alcohol. Maybe have a chaser ready. Otherwise, the suggestions above are some of the same I would have said. Apple sauce, mix with some juice, etc.

Or, maybe add a spoon full of sugar?

How large is the dose? Maybe mix it with some V8?

I would suggest a strong mint or lemondrop to suck on afterwards.

Denatonium benzoate (clad in trade names as Bitrex or Aversion) is the bitterest substance known to man. In sufficient quantities (likely a fraction of a teaspoon), it could thoroughly mask the taste of your liquid vitamins.

More practically, I would suggest mixing them with yogurt. Might not mask the flavor entirely, and it might reduce the overall benefit, but it’s worth investigating.

@BarnacleBill I think I’ve got some pretty bad absorption issues going on (should be getting some tests today to check on that) and wasn’t getting any benefit from my pill form multivit. My pharmacist thought liquid would be best absorbed, but chewable may work out fine too. I’m going to switch to chewable if I just can’t stomach the liquid stuff, but I figured I’d ask you fine folks for suggestions first to see if there’s any way I might be able to get the liquid stuff in.

Thanks all!

@mariah So, you have had previously specific blood tests showing your dificiencies? Multivitamins have some negatives about them, like certain vitamins and minerals are better taken on an empty stomach, some better with food for absorption purposes. The type of iron in pills is better on an empty stomach or with some orange juice, C and the acid aids the absorption, food would inhibit. D better with food. Calcium best with D and K2. There are other combinations, that I actually know little about, I just know the few that are of concern for me.

What tests did they recently do? I think our food lacks in vitamins and minerals from our farming practices, and then of course we in America generally have part of our food intake that is not as “whole” as it should be. With all my dificiencies they respond to taking supplements in larger doses. Maybe I have an absorption problem, but I doubt it, goodness knows the fat is being absorbed onto my stomach and thighs. My aunt eats 2000 calories a day and cannot get above 85 pounds, she has an absorption problem, it is very sad and scary. Another friend of mine with Crohns eats all sorts of crap food full of fat and cholesterol and does not get fat and his cholesterol is low. Before the disease his cholesterol was high and hisnwhole family is high, dies from heart disease. Although, there are specific genetic diseases, difiencies in certain enzymes that can affect the absorption of very specific nutrients. B12 is one, usually seen in people from the meditarreanean part of world. They can test for that specific disease. If you are low on B12 I revommend don’t just jump to the shots, take a supplement first and retest.

Actually, if the taste is really vile and you must take it in =liquid form, and you can’t put it in a do-it-yourself capsule, you could bite into a hot pepper first, then swallow the stuff and wash out your mouth while the nerve endings in it are still fooled by the capsaicin into not noticing anything but the burn.

@JLeslie Mariah is a special case as she has IBD. I have no doubt she is having some malabsorption issues.

@Mariah Just in thinking about it more, I think you’d be totally fine with the chewables. Chew them well and let them dissolve in your mouth; this would be the same thing as drinking liquid vitamins and way more palatable.

@JLeslie I haven’t had blood tests yet; I’ll be getting them today. I just suspect I am deficient because of the way I feel – that is, pretty shitty. I had ulcerative colitis (almost the same thing as Crohn’s, although it doesn’t affect absorption as much, as it only affects the colon, no small bowel involvement) and I suspect I’ve had deficiences for a while because of it. I don’t know why my doctor has never ordered a vitamin panel, or why I never thought to ask for one. Now I’ve had my colon removed and have an ileostomy. The stoma is located above the terminal ileum, so B12 is one thing I’m very concerned about right now – I’m pretty sure it’s physiologically impossible for me to absorb B12 taken orally right now. Sigh. I am like your friends. I can’t seem to get above 83 right now. But my appetite is also horrible and I’m hardly eating.

Thanks @Rarebear; it’s reassuring to hear you say that chewables should work!

@mariah Sorry for all of the physical difficulties you are going through, health problems suck! The majority of my female friends who have been tested for D are dificient. I also know quite a few dificient in B12 and Iron. I will say of all the vitamins and minerals I know I was low in (when I say I know I mean blood tests not some gut feeling) the only one that makes a drastic obvious difference in how I feel is iron. The difference between being low and getting up into the normal ranges is drastic. I do have friends who claim to feel much better from D as they get their levels to normal, but I have not noticed a huge improvement, however I have never gotten that up in to the normal range, I still hover near the bottom.

Most should absorb in the stomach and small intestine, so maybe you can get things normal without shots or extreme measures. I do take prescription vitamin D plus some extra OTC.

B12 is absorbed beginning in the mouuth, you can find sublingual drops, and also the stomach and small intestine, so your colon, or lack thereof should not affect it. Although, I guess you possibly have other problems in the small intestine possibly not readily detected. But, let me give you an idea. B12 supplements frequently are 500–1000 mcg, while b12 in a multi is 6 mcg. If I take around 2000 mcg by mouth a week my numbers move right up. I am not great at taking b12 every day.

Are you pissed a doctor has not thought to test vitamins and minerals?

Let us know what the results show, maybe there is an easy fix to get you feeling a little better? Any chance you have a thyroid or hormone thing going on, that will make you feel really shitty also, and happens to a lot of women.

If you don’t need all the vitamins in the multi vitamin, try getting the ones you need. And if possible maybe getting shots will help. If it is something you need on a regular basis, you can learn to self administer the shots to reduce the cost.

I wonder why they make that stuff taste so bad? There was a scientist who went into the business of creating oral elixirs that taste good for children. His child had to take some sort of drug for a neuroligical disorder I think, and it tasted terrible. It was a torture for the parent and the child. And, so he began developing something to resolve the problem. I just don’t remember if it is something that can be added to any medicine? Or something a pharmacist mixes in, or just something created for specific medicines.

I still cannot swallow pills well, and most people are horrible regarding this issue. No understanding at all.

@JLeslie Thanks, I probably won’t hear of the results until Tuesday, but I’ll let you know if there’s anything significant!
I know they don’t want to make the stuff taste really good because kids might go and get it and chug it down. But it seems unnecessarily bad. Maybe there was nothing they could do to improve it at all.

I have the same issue, and this is my plan going forward. A spoonful of apple cider vinegar, a spoonful of B vitamins, then another spoonful of apple cider vinegar. We’ll see.