What is the best way to take pills without tasting them?

Applesauce?

wrap in bacon

Ugh, I am a terrible pill taker, and pills that dissolve in a second are a torture for me. Generics often do this, especially flipping generic Flagyl, metronizadole, and the taste will make you puke! Pisses me off.

I need to take a breath, blow it out, then set the pill near the back of my tongue and swallow fast, and hope not to choke to death. I make my husband be on the phone with me if he is not home when I take large pills or hard to take ones in case I need 911 called. He thinks I am crazy. I actually wound up in the hospital once, because I did not swallow ibuprofen well, and didn’t drink enough water and parts of the pill laid in my esophogus and burnt ulcers into me. I have pictures of it. Goddamn drug companies.

A minute before you swallow the pill take a piece of chocolate and suck on it.
Swallow the chocolate and throw the pill in, the remaining (sweet) chocolate will make it a bittersweet experience!

I found using chocolate milk instead of water made pills go down easy, without tasting them at all. Especially ones that were prone to sticking to my tongue.

Edit: I just noticed both @rebbel and I used chocolate as our fix, haha.

@JLeslie What the heck?! That’s exactly the pill I was talking about! Metronizadoleshit! LOL.

You have to make sure it is ok to take with food before you try any of these food suggestions. Dairy is prohibited with many medications, even when other food is ok. Also do not take with citrus, especially grapefruit.

@mazingerz88 Hahahaha! I just read you are taking the metronizadole. That fucking pill!! It comes in capsules. If it tortures you to take it get the capsules.

Buy a pill crusher at a chemist and then crush it and mix it with with something tasty.

I can’t believe they have never fixed that pill, I took it 25 years ago. Levoxyl, a thyroid med also dissolves too quickly. Levoxyl is a little mini pill, and people thought I was nuts to complain. Things like that piss me off. I had to look high and low for smallish calcium pills. I could go on and on. How difficult can it be to put a nice coating on the pills?

My rant for the night :).

I try to “float” them, but it doesn’t always work. I take that thyroid pill @JLeslie mentioned ^^, and it does dissolve too fast. I have my drink near my mouth when I toss the pills in, and take a swig immediately, trying to get the pills off my tongue and down my throat as quickly as possible.

@mazingerz88 Truly…here I go again…that pill is the worst tasting pill ever in the history of pill taking. Gag city. Do you have to take a bunch at once, or three times a day for a week?

@augustlan I switched to Unithroid. Much happier. Little round hard pill. Costs me about $10 a month with my insurance. Out of pocket it is very cheap also.

I take 11 pills all at once, in a single swallow, every day. Three of them are very large, more than ½” long and very thick and bulky, and at least one is very bitter. No problems ever.

Here’s what I do: I have the full set in a single container. I use a pill counter, but a little cup would do as well. With water glass at the ready, I deposit the pills right behind my lower front teeth. They don’t touch my tongue. No taste buds there. They can easily rest there long enough for me to raise the glass. Even longer if I forget to run the water first.

Then I kind of toss them back at the same time that I take a swallow of water. They are swept across my tongue without pausing. Down the hatch. No tasting, no sticking, no lingering. Piece of cake.

Honestly, like @Jeruba, I take a handful of vitamins/pills all at once. I just “throw” them to the back of my mouth with my hand (or cup, if you prefer) and follow immediately with water, and open my throat. I don’t think they ever touch my tongue. It’s sort of one, quick motion.

You people who take a bunch of pills at once most likely have a very weak or non existent gag reflex. 30% of the population doesn’t. Some of us truly, physically have a harder time swallowing, and doing other things also. Believe me it sucks. No pun intended, if you know what I mean.

@ANef_is_Enuf, I used to do the same as you. I added a step to give me plenty of time to get the water. I don’t have to rush at all the way I do it now.

[Edit] To answer your remark, @JLeslie, my gag reflex is such that I cannot ever say “ahhh” with a tongue depressor—just can’t handle it. The doctor puts his hands behind his back and looks real quick. I can do it as long as he doesn’t touch me. Also my throat is constricted from decades of severe coughing, which I suspect has thickened the walls. In general I have difficulty swallowing and never take very big bites of anything. Yet this process never gives me any trouble at all.

@JLeslie you wouldn’t say that if you saw me cleaning up dog poop. lol. Even so, it wouldn’t matter for just one pill.. I wouldn’t think. Just throw it back there. @Jeruba‘s method may be even more effective, from the sounds of it.

I take five to seven pills at once in the AM, and three at once in the PM. One of those is a monster of a pill, but all the others are really small.

@ANef_is_Enuf Gagging, and gag reflex are two different things.

@JLeslie I know, I was only teasing. :)

@ANef_is_Enuf I’m not upset at you when I say this, but people like me who have trouble swallowing are treated like shit and dismissed all of the time. Just swallow it! It’s all in your mind. Here let me tell you how to do it. I don’t want to pay for the more expensive pill, break that one in half (that’s how I wound up in the ER with a tube down my throat to see what was causing me all that pain. Down my throat, one of my bigger fears, because I have a strong gag reflex. Throwing up, being forced to eat something I don’t like, giving head, swallowing pills. All these things everyone else can deal with much easier, I need to psych myself up and calm myself down). So, I guess I don’t pick up on when people are joking. it is pretty serious for me. To me. Every day I take pills that take all my concentration to get down.

[NSFW] Actually, I like girls who have a gag reflex and have trouble swallowing. It amplifies the pleasure for me :-p

@HungryGuy Not funny. And, it is not about swallowing only in that circumstance, it is being able to give head at all, knock back too far, and I might gag. Better give me all the control.

@JLeslie I wasn’t trying to insinuate that you should be able to swallow a handful of pills just because I can. I was just thinking that if you have to swallow one, which you have to swallow either way, and can throw it to the back of your throat.. you could avoid the taste factor.
I have a son that can’t swallow pills without throwing up, so believe me, I can see how difficult it is.

@ANef_is_Enuf Oh, I did not feel you were trying to insinuate anything. My rant is not really directed at you, it is more like I feel I need to educate the world about people like me. That’s why I wrote you didn’t upset me. I didn’t want to put you on the defensive. When kids can’t swallow pills, it is usually treated as the child being a pain, typical child behavior of not wanting to do something, being obstinate, etc. But, almost everyone who has trouble swallowing wishes it was different. I guess it is like a trauma for me from childhood and all these emotions get triggered. Not that I am crying or anything. At the beginning of the Q I was joking. But, I guess your remark just got to me. You did nothing wrong of course. It’s just me being sensitive.

@JLeslie I understand. Sorry. <3

@ANef_is_Enuf You don’t need to apologize, really. But, thank you. I’m not angry at all.

My aunt takes hers with V-8 juice as it is thick and helps her to swallow. I used to have to butter bread, chew it up until ready to swallow, then put the pill on it and then swallow. But I have since been able to swallow pills. I can’t think about it before I do or I will gag them up.

The bitter taste is gone from my tongue now. I rubbed salt on it. : )

I put the pill ALLLLLLL the way on the back of my tongue to the point where it’s almost falling down my throat, and my swallow reflex goes crazy. . . not sure how it works, but I’m guessing its’ b/c there aren’t many taste buds back there.

From my doctor: Keep your head facing straight ahead, not tipped up or down. Put the pill on the tip of your tongue and drink a water. The pill will be carried right down your throat with the water. I have one humongous pill I take daily and that method works! Try it!

@mazingerz88 Oh, you just wanted the taste to go away after taking the pill. Swallowing the pill wasn’t the big problem.

@JLeslie Yes. I do have a friend however since high school who never swallowed any pill in his life. He said he just can’t. : )

Chocolate works best. Have a piece of your favorite one, right before taking the pill.

[mod says] This is our Question of the Day!

Pear juice worked for me when I was having difficulty during early pregnancy. Kinda the same idea as the chocolate milk, because it’s thicker, but without the dairy factor.

Ask a pharmacist if you can bake them in chocolate cookies.