medicine swallowing difficulties

i always had problems with swallowing pills, i just can't get i down my throat. But this time i can't get out of it. So i had to try. Day one, no problem at all, it just slided down. I almost thought i finially can do it. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th day didn't went as well. I just can't swallow it at once. After having it in my mouth for a minute or slightly longer, with various attempt to swallow it and attemts to flush it down, it eventually did. So my questions are:

-Are there any problems with a pill that has slighty dissolved in your mouth, before you managed to swallow it.
-Any tips so i can swallow it, in one go?

-Are there any problems with a pill that has slighty dissolved in your mouth, before you managed to swallow it.

Not that I can think of, other than some un-coated pills might taste pretty bad.

-Any tips so i can swallow it, in one go?

Put it on your tongue and drink some water, that's what most of us do. Usually it just goes down with the water. Maybe start out with small pills first, maybe even some small candies like cinnamon hearts or tic-tacs.

1. Put pill on tongue.
2. Take a fairly big mouthfull of water or juice.
3. Shake head vigoriously.
4. Swallow, fast.

The head shaking will suspend the pill in the liquid and will go down with liquid. Doesn't look to good, but it works.
Dave

When I was younger :P I had the same problem with a large pills. What I discovered that helped is taking a large mouthful of water with the pill, then put your chin down and swallow. Really helps!!

Break that big pill in half- now you got two small ones. Easy thing now.

Play around with swallowing small pieces of ice. You can then work up to bigger pieces until you are swallowing some pieces much bigger than your pills. Ice is easy to swallow and will melt if it gets hung up some place. You will get to where you can swallow horse pill sized pieces of ice no problem.
Oh the shaking your head thing that X-ray talks about does seem to work for me too. I don’t very often but using the above I can swallow a whole hand full of pills at one go.

Oh and something thicker than water helps too. Juice or milk is better with orange juice being the best for me. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I bet you swallow bites of food all the time that are larger than those pills that are tormenting you. Ask yourself how it is that you have no trouble those bites of food, but the pills give you so much trouble. I pondered this idea one day as a child and have had no trouble swallowing pills of any size with or without water ever since. Now if by chance you not able to swallow bites of food larger than a pill then, well, thats another story.

thanks for the reply, but none of them really helped today. I will try tomorow again...

Before allowing the pill to dissolve in your mouth, check with your pharmacists/chemist, to see if it is okay for the particular medicine you are taking to do so. Many pills/tablets are coated with a special coating, which will dissolve in the appropriate place in the intestinal tract and be correctly absorbed. Some medicines can be inactivated by the stomach’s gastric acids and are coated to allow them to pass through the stomach and dissolve in the small intestine. If your pharmacist/chemist says that the particular medicine you are taking will not be adversely affected, try grinding the pill up and mixing it will applesauce, pudding, etc. and take the medicine that way. Also ask if the medicine is available in liquid form.

Pete

the pill is uncoated, kinda looks like compressed powder. And is only avaible in pills.( The first thing i asked.)
Will try to contact my docter, they where on strike, today, yesterday and the day before yesterday...

Doctors go on strike in the Netherlands?

the familiy docters are, they where doing weekend shifts. So priority medical stuff only. Hospitals are also running with extra people to cope with it.

I used to have the same difficulties that you are having. I basically got over it by starting with small pills/candies. I tried putting the pill on my tongue, and swallowing a mouthful of water. That never seemed to work for me. Here's what I do now. I put the pill right behind my teeth, in front of my tongue,basically as far forward in my mouth as I can. Then I take in a mouthful of water or juice. To swallow the pill I take my whole head, slam it back, and swallow. The head motion makes the pill go to the back of my mouth and goes down with the water.


Robert

Try putting the pill in a spoonful of applesauce or puding and swallowing it that way, with the applesauce. It is done in nursing homes here quite often.

actually i have been able to swallow the pill 3 days in a row now. I don't put the pill on my tongue, but next to my tooth as far back as possible. Than take some water and just swallow.
And thanks for the replies, guys !

I'm not sure whether your problem is with the gag reflex (usually a good thing to have) or the pill sticking to your tongue - this method solves both of those problems.

First down some water to wet the mouth and throat.

Then take some more, and swallow about half of it.

Lean the head back, drop the pill in the mouth. If necessary move the head around as Dave says to keep the pill suspended.

If you need some more water, take it now.

Swallow.

Now take some more water in case the pill didn't make it all thw way down.

Now take a little more. Finish the glass if you like.

I can usually get even the biggest horse pills back this way.

If you have any trouble with this, replace the water with ice water, or better yet, milk, as cold as you can possibly get it, and take some extra sips beforehand. This partially desensitizes the throat, and horse pills should go down without a problem.

And if that fails, spray with some Chloroseptic to start and give it a few minutes to take effect. You should be able to swallow swords by this point!