(no subject)

[jianantonic]

I've never been good at swallowing things. Go ahead, take a moment to laugh and point out the double entendre. Specifically speaking, I'm bad at swallowing pills. Even when I was on the birth control pill, which is only slightly larger than a grain of sand, I had trouble swallowing the thing. I've never swallowed gum or even enough air to make myself burp. Food I can handle because I chew it first. Drinks are no problem because they're liquid. But if it's solid, my instinct to chew is so very strong that I have incredible difficulty with things like painkillers or my daily multivitamin.

Luckily, I don't currently take any prescription pills and I really avoid painkillers as much as possible. But I'm sold on the benefits of taking a multivitamin, so I do, despite my hangups. I will often sit for several seconds holding that giant pill in a pool of water at the back of my throat, working up the nerve to try to swallow it. Usually this goes OK, but occasionally I choke, coughing up the pill onto the floor or the front of my shirt and I have to start all over again. Rarely does it ever go down within five seconds of entering my mouth. People who can swallow pills without taking a drink with them blow my mind. How is it even possible?

Anyway, only a couple of times have I ever actually vomited while trying to take a pill, and I don't think that's ever actually happened with my multivitamin, but taking this pill is still a very unpleasant daily experience. I absolutely loathe the feeling/taste that occurs when the pill sits too long in my mouth, or rubs my throat the wrong way as it goes down. That is the worst taste in the world. Worse than earwax. I do know from experience, unfortunately.

One of the craziest nights of my life was when my friend Kathryn and I polished off an entire bottle of Flintstones vitamins at a sleepover in 7th grade. We scarfed those suckers down like candy. Until quite recently, this was the closest I'd ever come to being high. It was fantastic. It's a good thing our town didn't have a Sam's Club yet, because if the bottle had been one of those family size things, we would've taken even more. My point, though, is that vitamins haven't always been disgusting. I also remember taking cherry-flavored chewable aspirin as a child. I know I'm not a kid anymore and don't have to be tricked into thinking my medicine is candy to take it, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with the fact that it tastes like pure evil. Why can't they make adult pills yummy and chewable?

I would appreciate it if the science geeks among you would get to work on this.

Thank you.

Peace.

Comments

[quandary87.livejournal.com]

Meg, why don't you just buy multivitamins for children and eat those? I'm serious. I certainly won't think any worse of you for doing that, and it can't be any (or at least not significantly) less effective. I mean its just the dosage size and maybe a few extra sugar calories that differentiates adult vitamins from children's vitamins. Maybe a slightly different combination, but still, not a huge difference. So just buy some chewables or gummy bear vitamins and you'll never have to try to swallow a pill again.

:)

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

I think there are more significant differences than just dosages. I take what my doctor recommended to me. I'll compare it to the Flintstones stuff, but I don't think it's all that similar.

[flamingophoenix.livejournal.com]

"more significant differences than just dosages" meaning what? Dosages are all a vitamin is, right?

Just look on the label, at the ingredients list and at the % Daily Value table. That will tell you all you need to know. But checking with your doctor never, ever hurts. I'm sure s/he would rather see you eating your vitamin regularly than dreading the thought of taking it (and possibly missing it some days because of this).

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

Well, I never miss it. Some days it's just harder to swallow than others. But I mean I think there are specific combos in different multivitamins - I take a "women's" formula, which probably helps my girly issues more than a child's vitamin would. I don't know what the differences are, like I said I just take what my doctor tells me to:) But I will look into it further.

[flamingophoenix.livejournal.com]

You know, I agree with you. I had to hunt for AGES before I found a multivitamin that didn't contain either iron or calcium. I found it in CVS's store brand daily pill and their iron pill and Tums. Tums are delicious and chewy, and I take them whenever I have any remotely bad feeling in my tummy. I think it's a placebo effect. And I can always use more calcium. (Well...not always. But I do drink less milk now than when I was a kid.) Having the iron be separate is also good because it means I can take one pill twice a day if I have a particularly heavy menstrual flow. (OMG TMI! Haha, suckers.) And both these pills are about the size of a Sudafed (so, about 2-3 times the size of my bc pill) and are as such quite easy to swallow.

I myself have trouble with Robitussin's Liqui-Gels, which is the only big pill I'll even consider unless it's a vital prescription. Giant multivitamins were just out of the question.

[oobermeister.livejournal.com]

i can't imagine what would be in the flintstones vitamins that could possibly get you wasted, unless you got some crazy placebo effect.

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

honestly it was probably all the sugar more than anything else.

[flamingophoenix.livejournal.com]

that was my guess, too.

[kixeldorado.livejournal.com]

Centrum Chewables. I just finished a bottle (over the month or so, not all at once).

They're for adults. They're HUGE, but chewable. Orangey flavored, which gets some getting used to if you're not big on orange. I found mine at the CVS.

And yes, the percentages between adult and kiddie vitamins are the slightest bit different, but not by much, and really, even a kiddie one is better than nothing, right?

I think the "women's" vitamin has more iron and folic acid in it than the "regular" and maybe higher levels of the B vitamins, but I'm not sure.

[robinhoodvandal.livejournal.com]

I have no issues at all with swallowing pills, but damn do I hate multivitamins. I have been looking for a decent chewable one for ever. The biggest problem is that most of the chewable ones have sigfnificantly fewervitamins and minerals than theones you haev to swallow. I finally found one though that has a ton of stuff in it AND is chewable.
http://www.amazon.com/Country-Life-Chewable-Adults-wafers/dp/B00014DLRY
they are vegetarian, hypoallergenic, and taste yummy to boot.