To ask how you swallow tablets?

[GarlicBreadStan]

For as long as I can remember (I'm 27, if that matters) I've had real issues with swallowing tablets. I can swallow my contraceptive pill absolutely fine, but anything bigger than that and I really do struggle. I often end up with the tablet dissolving in my throat, or I gag when trying to swallow it even with water. I've had to result in taking Calpol before because it was just easier. Because of my difficulty with swallowing tablets, I often don't take painkillers and just suffer through pain (and I have a migraine at least twice a month).

How do you take tablets or, if you can't, do you get prescribed/buy liquid painkillers?

Thank you x

P.S. sorry for saying the word "swallow" so many times :s

Chuck in the back of your throat with one hand immediately chuck a drink back with the other hand. Hey presto gone. Just like nothing happened in a nano second.

I used to struggle with tablets for years and years. Now I can swallow a handful (up to 8) in one go without issue. So it is something you can learn.

Being relaxed and confident is important. I find if I think about gagging I will. Make sure you are hydrated first, having a dry mouth makes it more likely to "catch".

Buy medicines strategically. Look for the round sugar coated ibuprofen Vs the capsules. I prefer paracetamol capsules Vs the dry powder ones though as the bad taste makes it harder.

Pop the tablet on the middle of your tongue, wait a few seconds to relax, grab a full glass of water and just drink as much of it as you can while ignoring the tablet. Try and just trigger your normal drinking reflex vs trying to do a special "tablet swallow". Tell yourself beforehand that it's going to be fine, you are just having a normal drink. Try and get rid of any tension in your shoulders.

After that it's just practice. Obviously don't go taking meds for no reason just to get good at it!

In food. So I’ll chew up something like bread, get right to the point I’m about to swallow, put the pill in my mouth and swallow it all together.

But I still can’t do massive pills like this. I cut ones that can be cut, but if they’re those plasticky ones that you can’t cut, I have to get an alternative.

It does depend on the size/shape/slipperiness of the tablet so I have 3 different methods

• take a big mouthful of water first then slip a tablet in through my lips just before swallowing. Doesn't work with all tablets they have to be slippery enough to get in past my lips without water getting out
• only with coated tablets that won't start dissolving in my mouth, pop on my tongue, look up while taking a drink - if I can't see the light fitting above my head, the angle of my throat is wrong and the tablet doesn't go down.
• with food instead of drink. During a meal or snack, taking a mouthful of food and chewing it up, slip a tablet into my mouth just before I am ready to swallow and it all goes down together.

But it is.
I just bolt back 4 massive collagen capsules everybmorning . Don’t even need water although I neck a coffee at the same time for speed.

It’s the psychological pressure of “!I have to swallow”. Just know that tablet is the same size as food you swallow easily and do it.

Yogurt or custard or anything thick.

We used to give DS his tablets with trifle as it was the only way he could swallow them. (SEN)

But it isn't. I've ended up in tears while trying to swallow tablets before. I've gagged, thrown up, coughed, cried, and then decided to literally suffer through the pain because it was too hard to take the tablet.

I was coming to say this, only I put tablets in 1st, drink then tip head forward to swallow

You can get nurofen ‘meltlets’ if that helps? They dissolve under your tongue and taste quite nice!

I very rarely have issues taking tablets but know for some people (and children) it’s particularly difficult. I think it must be a mixture of physiological differences (angle of tongue perhaps?) and psychological ones. Either way, try the meltlets and get some pain relief when you need it! (If you can take ibuprofen). I believe pharmacists can make up paracetamol suspensions for you too; it’s worth asking in your pharmacy. Nobody should have to go without pain relief when needed.

I don't follow the "traditional"advice of putting the tablet as far back on tongue as possible. That's a recipe for setting off my gag reflex. It goes near the tip of my tongue then gets flipped backwards as I glug the water, is the best way to describe it.

If you can swallow food normally you can train yourself to tablets. Follow a hospitals instructions (like this one from Alder Hey or have a look for online videos - sorry they all involve children because there’s an assumption that adults don’t need help). Essentially start with a very small sweet and work your way up in size. If you only take larger tablets occasionally it’s a good idea to practice regularly so you don’t get anxious when you do need to take a tablet.

Using a sports bottle so you’re sucking can help and ‘drink through’ by swallowing three or four gulps of water quickly can also make it easier. Try to focus on drinking rather than tablet taking.

Tablets tend to sink, so head back slightly to help them move to the back of the mouth, but only slight as tipping right back can make it more difficult to swallow. Some people find tipping the head forward is easier. Capsules float so head forward is advised.

If you are struggling to take an essential medicine, do speak to your practice pharmacist. Depending on the drug there’s often lower strength tablets that you can double up so they’re smaller or liquids available. Some you can mix with food but you won’t usually find this out from the leaflet that comes with them.

I think some people (like that poster) who can swallow pills are unable to comprehend that other people can’t. I’m like you (I use food to swallow tablets) and I’m not an idiot so “just know it’s the same size as the food you swallow” is not helpful advice. I know that because it is obvious. But my body literally won’t swallow it. It’s like a reflex. I’m aware its psychological but that doesn’t mean it easy to override.

Lot's of article online about how to desensitise a gag reflex if that is part of the problem.

I was on three antibiotic, plastic type capsules, four times a day, recently when Covid turned to pneumonia. I had to take them with a fizzy drink and have something to eat, even a small piece of bread after, to stop that stuck-in-the-throat feeling.

I do this as well.

https://www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk/advice-guides/helping-your-child-to-swallow-tablets/

I work with children with swallowing problems and we recommend this kidmedz programme to learn to swallow tablets maybe try their way?

Look down, not up before you swallow. That means the tablet, floating on the liquid, is at the back of your throat. It’s counter intuitive until you think about it, but tilting your head back is pushing the pill away from your throat (because it floats on the top of the liquid).

Or take it with food.

This! It almost shoots down!

This ^ is my technique as well. I don’t need a lot of liquid by the way I can manage with just a tiny bit to wash off the taste.
I strongly believe that people have different ability to swallow tablets, I wonder if it’s sensitivity around mouth or throat size but we are not so much the same as we think.
I actually started worrying about small tablets recently, I would definitely struggle with pills. I feel like they are difficult to control as they are so small, but I know it’s just nerves, nothing to do with tablets. So i agree that taking tablets requires being relaxed and positive.
My DD has additional needs and really struggled with taking tablets, we always asked for liquid or I crushed them if possible. Then she was prescribed antibiotics around 16 y.o. which were not possible to crush so ..we just practiced calmly. We went through double prescription first time but it’s got better. It’s still a situation where if she had to take a course or 14 tablets she probably needs around 20 just in case but still it have been an enormous game changer for her.

Save some of your preferred hot drink , cool until tepid . Put tablets in mouth , finish of the cooled dregs of your drink .

Pretend the tablet inside your mouth is not there! It sounds weird but this is my technique.

Put tablet in mouth and then take a glug of water and swallow like you would normally do. I don't change anything about how I swallow water with or without tablet.

If you focus too much on the tablet when swallowing, then you will psych yourself out of doing it.

I have successfully taught children with severe learning disabilities to swallow pills. Look up pill swallow cup or similar. Really worked after lots of practise.

I used to be the same, from being a teenager I just couldn’t swallow tablets and I think the not being able to made it worse and I just told myself I couldn’t.
I used to have to use nurofen meltlets and aspro-clear which were soluble aspirin. I don’t know if these are a thing anymore.
I also would ask the doctor whenever prescribed anything just to be told that they don’t have that in liquid form and I would just have to take tablets! Which I couldn’t. So used to end up crushing or emptying them and putting them in jam even when the instructions said not to.

For some reason around my mid thirties I just taught myself to do it. I don’t know exactly how I did it but what I did was to have drink first. Then I put the tablet as far back on my tongue as I can without gagging and then quickly take a drink (but not too big a sip). Worked for me and the more I did it the easier it got so I think a lot of it was psychological.
Good luck!

My son is under great ormond st, and the nurses there were saying that it the kids struggle with taking a pill they use a sports bottle with a straw. Put the pill in and drink up using the straw really quickly. This can help for some people.

I can't take pills either, if I put one in my mouth first and then take a drink I end up choking and the pill starts dissolving in my mouth.

I take a big mouthful of water first, then chuck the pill in my mouth and swallow.