I don’t mean to derail this post, but I always get wary about wholesale recommendations to crush what you can’t swallow because there are some medications that cannot under any circumstance be crushed. I’ve seen the fallout from pills that got crushed that should never be crushed, and in some of those cases it was life-threatening.
Luckily, when I went to pharmacy school we had a whole class on the topic of swallowing pills! Pharmacists see patients of all ages and abilities, and throughout life a person’s ability to swallow can change drastically, so we discussed the various means of addressing this need in our patients.
The above advice to fling your pills back with a mouthful of water is legit advice. Just don’t choke! Maybe not the best option for kids or accident-prone adults.
For young patients who are just learning the trick of swallowing pills, or adults who never caught on to the knack, there’s a method of starting out small because there can be a lot of anxiety around the activity that can make the experience even worse. Think super low stakes, no pressure. Go to the baking aisle and get the smallest sprinkle you can find, so tiny it will dissolve on the tongue as soon as it’s in your mouth. If you have to break a sprinkle in half or into quarters, so be it. Let the candy sprinkle be as small as you need it to be so that it isn’t scary. Even if the sprinkle dissolves, swallow anyways to get used to the sensation of swallowing on command for this purpose. Then find a bigger kind of sprinkle and repeat process. Find a slightly bigger sprinkle again, repeat process. Do this over a period of days to weeks to simply get used to the sensation to swallowing on command in a situation with absolutely nothing at stake except sprinkles. You can work your way up to those decorative sprinkle balls for cakes - I’ve seen some that are straight up pill-sized. I’ve worked with kids who are just learning the process and adults who have anxiety around the issue of pill swallowing, and using the sprinkle method has had decent success, though it’s not perfect, not everyone builds their way up, and it does take days to weeks to build the confidence/swallowing-on-command reflex.
If the sprinkle method is not for you, alternative formulations could be your thing. There are many medications that have alternative formulations to pills, such as liquid suspensions, chewables, orally dissolving tablets, sublingual/buccal tablets or films, capsules that can be opened (caution here, since not all capsules can be opened), nasal sprays, suppositories, patches, creams/ointments, injectables, etc… I’ve worked with compounding pharmacies that specialize in creating alternative formulations like lozenges and lollipops for kids who were in no way capable of pill-swallowing. It may be worth it to ask if there is an alternative formulation to the medication you are taking if swallowing is an absolute no-go for you.
When I work with certain geriatric populations who can still swallow food but may have lost the coordination to swallow pills, putting the pill in a soft, easily-swallowable food can help them immensely with coordinating the swallowing reflex. Same thing can apply to anyone else whose issue is just trying to coordinate the swallowing reflex around something as small as a pill. Various examples of food that I see used in hospital are puddings, jams, and apple sauce. Other soft foods like mashed potato or spray cheese in a can also work, if savoury options are needed. Just be sure to ask your pharmacist if the medication you are dealing with needs to be taken on an empty stomach or not, because if the medication requires an empty stomach, then this is not the method for you. Luckily, there are more medications in the world that can be taken with food than are are without food, so your chances are good that this method will work.
That all being said, I’ve dealt with hundreds of different kinds of medications, and a lot of them can be crushed if you absolutely need to do so. For everyone’s safety, I would recommend asking a pharmacist if it is safe to crush your medication before doing so.
Some reasons why a pill can’t be crushed can include: coated for time-release reasons or so the pill dissolves in specific segments of your digestive tract. Other pills need to be swallowed whole because the medication itself is super irritating and can burn your throat or you could accidentally aspirate into your lungs. Most pills are the most vile-tasting shit you’ll ever encounter in your life and some are so disgusting that they’re film-coated literally so you don’t throw up from the taste.
With that all in mind, I dearly apologize to OP for the pill-swallowing ramble. This is probably not what you imagined when you shared your post. I am proud of you for finding the right trick that addresses your pill swallowing need; I hope that perhaps someone else might find your trick helpful, or may find something helpful in my advice.
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