Bad Tasting Pills

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in ICU, Agency, Travel, Pediatric Home Care, LTAC, Su.

I have to take a few daily medications. One of them being lamictal, unfortunately the dose is 3 pills. The label clearly says do not crush or chew, all I can say as if!! Those nasty pills dissolve as soon as they hit my mouth and water. I have been taking them for many years. It is just getting harder all the time to swallow them. I literally have to fight back want to gag or worse. Anyone have any ideas or tricks? Thanks in advance:) I take other pills as well but the lamictal is the only one I have this issue with.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

What about mixing them with applesauce or pudding....like some might do when working at a nursing home.

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they do come in chewables.

you can swallow whole, chew or dissolve in juice/water.

sounds like it's time to switch. :)

leslie

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Specializes in ICU, Agency, Travel, Pediatric Home Care, LTAC, Su.

I have tried the applesauce and pudding. It does not mask the nasty taste. I will have to look into the cost difference of regular vs. chewables. Thanks a bunch of the suggestion!

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Applesauce always helps me.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

With cold season coming on,, have any of you tasted Zycam. Now thats some bad tasting stuff. Yuck.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
With cold season coming on,, have any of you tasted Zycam. Now thats some bad tasting stuff. Yuck.

Yep :stone

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With cold season coming on,, have any of you tasted Zycam. Now thats some bad tasting stuff. Yuck.

never heard of it.

i usually buy nyquil.

is zycam effective?

must be a liquid?

leslie

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Specializes in icu, er, transplant, case management, ps.
never heard of it.

i usually buy nyquil.

is zycam effective?

must be a liquid?

leslie

I grab something cold to drink, throw my head back and toss those nasty pills to the back of my throat and swallow fast. I can usually avoid their evil taste. If not, I make sure I have something strong tasting to drink, to wipe the bad taste out, like a shot of Irsih Mist:lol2:

Woody:balloons:

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Specializes in Diabetes ED, (CDE), CCU, Pulmonary/HIV.

Zycam is actually a spoon. Each spoon has one dose of a gel-like medication that supposed to help prevent or reduce severity of colds. It does taste nasty.

As for the Lamictal, is the pill small enough to fit inside a capsule? Empty gelatin capsules are available. You might want to try this if the pill is small.

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Specializes in Geriaterics.

Have you tried taking them with peanut butter? hopefully you like it. :chuckle

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Specializes in Diabetes ED, (CDE), CCU, Pulmonary/HIV.
I have to take a few daily medications. One of them being lamictal, unfortunately the dose is 3 pills. The label clearly says do not crush or chew, all I can say as if!! Those nasty pills dissolve as soon as they hit my mouth and water. I have been taking them for many years. It is just getting harder all the time to swallow them. I literally have to fight back want to gag or worse. Anyone have any ideas or tricks? Thanks in advance:) I take other pills as well but the lamictal is the only one I have this issue with.

I went to the Lamictal.com website and read the prescribing information. The reason for the instruction not to chew the tablets is because of the BITTER TASTE. If they start disolving as soon as they hit your tongue, you know they aren't a sustained release formula.

If they are small enough to put into a gelatin capsule, try that. Otherwise you could break them up or crush them and put into capsules.

Try this site: http://www.capsuline.com/

You can google "gelatin capsules" for other sites.

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