How to take pills maybe?

[soc_puppet]

Posted this on Tumblr, got some people who said it helped or thought it might help, figured I'd post it here as well. Inspired by a poll over there about how you take your pills (one at a time, all in one go, etc).

My mom taught me that with solid pills and tablets, you tilt your head back to swallow for best results; capsules, meanwhile, float, so when you take them with a drink, you tilt your head forwards to swallow them. From my understanding, the goal is to get them as close as you can to the back of your mouth for better swallowing.

So because the two different types of meds have different swallowing methods, and I take both, I don't take all of them in one go. (I mean, I don't even take all of my solid pills together, but I used to get heartburn from taking my meds the wrong way, so I'm inclined to take it easy with them when I can.)

Anyway, it probably doesn't work for everyone, but if you have trouble with pills and the like, it might be worth a shot

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

This is interesting! I'd never really made the connection that the types of pills behave differently, but I have noticed the frustrating experience of trying to tip my head back and having a pill go the wrong way!

[soc_puppet]

I started out taking pills dry, capsules included, which ended up with me getting heartburn! Thank goodness for Mom teaching me this trick, honestly.

[mistressofmuses]

Oof! I can imagine taking them dry would be difficult!

My mom always seemed mildly annoyed that I would "take pills wrong", because I wanted the liquid in my mouth first, and then I'd put the pill in to swallow. She insisted that putting the pill on your tongue and then taking a sip was the "correct" way to do it.

I wonder if that was a difference in what type of pills we were each more used to taking?

[soc_puppet]

It wasn't great, no!

Oh yeah, I've seen echoes of the "Pill first vs drink first" debate. I personally do pill first, but I'm pretty sure I'd have a major problem with spilling if I didn't. Beyond that, as far as I'm concerned, the correct way to take pills is the way that you can do it most reliably and comfortably. And that includes if you have to do an elaborate Rube Goldberg setup that deposits pills and drink directly into your mouth at the same time while you do the hokey-pokey!

[mistressofmuses]

I never wanted to do the pill first, because it would always stick to my tongue and I'd have to risk ~tasting it~, lol.

But very agreed: whatever works best *is* the best method! My grandmother struggles with pills + liquid, so she takes hers with a spoonful of jam. What matters is that you can take 'em with a minimum of difficulty.