Knock those pills back like a croc
I just chuck my pills right to the back of my throat - like how you see a crocodile eating.
Well, that’s not the whole process.
You see, for years I’ve been able to swallow huge pills, loads all at one time, with no problem (hey, I started young - diagnosed with epilepsy aged 10). Actually, they’ve never been an issue. I saw the pills as a challenge! My thinking was along the lines of “You can’t tell me that I can’t do it!”.
Pills taste gross.
Now, pills taste gross, full-stop. Why do they have to be so bitter?! Anyway, rarely these days do I ever experience the detestable “flavour” of medications.
Only recently, when someone saw me take my pills and asked me “How on earth do you swallow all of those in one go?!” did I really start thinking about it.
How do I manage it? I decided to figure it out.
How I take my pills
It was time to take my meds, so I went into auto-pilot, but took note. I took all of my pills out of my pill box, had them in the palm of my hand, and “threw” them into my mouth all in one.
Previously l thought I had just chucked my pills onto the back of my tongue. But no. They were UNDER my tongue! I know, right?!
Then, I grabbed some water (ok, squash/cordial if I’m totally honest), lifted my tongue and tilted the glass to place the water under my tongue to “meet” the pills and raise them from the bottom of my mouth.
Then, whilst moving my head back (like a crocodile does whilst eating* (see the YouTube link at the end if you’re not sure what I mean), I used my tongue to knock the water and pills right to the back of my throat and swallow.
I didn’t taste the pills AT ALL.
This process takes me about 5 seconds from start to finish.
Now I’m such an expert at this, no joke, that when I was in hospital, the nurse couldn’t believe I’d swallowed so many big pills in one go and asked me to lift my tongue to check I wasn’t hiding them. 😂
Occasionally I will have a pill touch the top of my tongue (normally that’ll be when I’m half-lying down when taking them and so don’t bend my neck back like a croc) and they taste vile 🤢. Don’t do it. It takes ages for the taste to go away on its own so I usually eat something to take away the “flavour”. Milk works well. I imagine so would yoghurt. Mmmm that makes me think of curry. Anyway…
Action
So, if you struggle with the flavour of your medications, try my technique.
If it’s your child struggling to take their pills (and assuming they are able to swallow - granted, some people aren’t able to swallow), try making learning the technique a competition (hey, loads of us are taking multi-vitamins).
We can swallow large amounts of food and our pills dont match the food in terms of mass, right? So if we take away the flavour of pills and just knock them back quickly whilst they aren’t touching our tongue, we won’t taste them!
Knock those pills back like a croc.
What do you think? Have you ever struggled to take your meds? Let me know if you think the above is useful!
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Torie Robinson
Keynote Speaker, Podcaster, Epilepsy Sparks CEO, Editor, Writer, et al.
*See the croc with their head-back technique at 1min 5 seconds. They are eating zebra though so it might be upsetting for some.