Child medicine

Full blown Kermit freakout in that last panel!

I used to take my cat to an old country horse vet. On one visit she had to get a pill of some sort and I told the vet that my cat hated pills and it wouldn't be possible to get one down her throat. He said "son, I've been a vet for over 50 years and I've never had a cat that I couldn't pill." He couldn't get the pill down her throat and had to give her a shot instead. I've never been so proud. RIP Martha, miss you girl.

... Do y'all really have that much of a problem popping pills?

No. Mouth full of drink as if going to gargle. Tilt head back, open mouth, drop in pill(s), IMMEDIATELY swallow, AND chase with more drink.

Dear god, its like some people want to taste our crimes against nature.

LPT: Fill your mouth with water, hold your head back and open mouth. drop the pill in. close mouth and swallow the water.

you wont even feel the pill.

by throwing the pill into the water already in your mouth instead of putting itin your mouth and then drinking the water, the pill wont have a chance to stick to your tongue or gums and release its bitter/nasty taste.

a lot of you here missed the point that this was how to get KIDS to swallow the pills. not you.

Oh wow, I'm gonna try this next time I need to down an ibuprofen

Aight, lots of discussion on tricks here - adding one to the pile.

Use food.

Especially fibery food that still has some texture when you chew it up, vs something like a banana that just chews down to a liquid anyway.

Think like Triscuits or something.

Anywho, add food of choice to your face. Chew it up until you're ready to swallow- but don't swallow. Grab your pill, and shove it right into the middle of your mass of Triscuit paste. Then swallow.

The mass of food will just push the pill right along with it - you'll barely even notice it's there.

People struggle with liquids because they just wash around the pill without pushing it.

Food is king for pill taking.

can't even get my adult partner to take pills normally. It's soo ridiculous the hoops a person would go through to avoid a slight bitter taste.

Wait what? That works??

Former pharmacy tech here, 8 years compounding pharmacy.

Get a mortar and pestle, crush it up and put it in whatever.

If not then use yogurt or something gooey.

I'm surprised by the amount of people in this thread having trouble taking pills. It's not really something I've ever thought about or heard other people struggle with but hey there it is

Why are people talking about cats? That's not how you get a cat to take a pill.

Depakote is an absolute motherfucking horse pill and a really wild patient often ends up on 1.5g (which is THREE horsepills) or more and a patient that wild often doesn't want the depakote so I'm stuck trying to convince someone who doesn't want to stop feeling like Jesus and Superman's love child into choking down these fucking golf balls (I'm exaggerating but the point is they're the biggest pills I administer by a long shot) and they don't even make injectable mood stabilizers so the courts can order backup injectables but they're usually benzos or antpsychotics which can help but won't really do enough and they can order it as a syrup which helps with cheeking but tastes nasty (but I do usually get a laugh asking if they want some salt and lime with it) and it's just... ergsdhcktdfnaajkfdv

Anyway the nurse trick is to give it with a spoonful of something thick like applesauce, pudding, or yogurt. It can help with the taste but more importantly thicker substances are easier for your pharynx to control as part of the swallowing reflex (we actually have beverage thickener on most nursing units for this exact reason). You don't even need to crush most pills (you're not trying to hide it, you're just giving the throat something easier to direct down the correct pipe) just plop them on top of the spoonful and you'll be able to swallow them much easier.

Does this work on human children, or just cats?

when i was in icu for 10 weeks, i learned this trick:

put the whole load of pills in your mouth, no water needed. then swallow them.

i dont know how i do it, i dont know why i couldnt do it before, i dont know how to explain it.

but i definitly can swallow half a handfull of pills just like that.

i learned it because that whole routine with glass of water and one pill at a time just was a PITA, when you are in icu for a good reason.

I never tried that and, judging from the comments here, it's probably not going to work if I need to swallow pills. I can remember having 3 incidents where that murderous piece of shit tried to go down the breathing hole

My cat is the best in that regard: either he eats the pills straight or off my hand or I put it on the floor and put his favorite creamy treat on top

Why did she turn into Kermit?

My trick is to tap my upper and lower teeth together to poorly simulate chewing (avoiding the pill, of course) and then I'd just naturally feel the urge to swallow.

Turn your head to one side, looking to your right (or left) in line with your shoulder, then take the pill as you normally would while you stay in that position. It will slide down much more easily than if you were facing forward.

There's also the pill crusher + jam/jelly/applesauce method.

More here:

https://health.ucdavis.edu/children/patient-education/How-to-Help-a-Child-take-their-Medicine

All right but if you do that you lose a chance for some “sanctioned for the greater good” violence on the little kid. I hear there are parents who would pass on that but mine sure wouldn’t.

Am I the only one who hates jokes where the entire setup is "These kids I chose to have sure are a pain in the ass!"