My Mom is having a hard time comprehending swallowing her pills. Any advice?

That's a hard one!

I think that potassium comes in a liquid form. Not pleasant, as I recall, but that might work better.

I had a pill crusher and dissolved my husband's pill is a very small amount of liquid so he could take it in one swallow and then follow it with "clean" liquid. What worked best for us was grape pop. The carbonation seemed to help with dissolving and the flavor masked the bitterness of crushed pills.

Discuss your issues with the pharmacist, who might have some additional suggestions.

Try putting the pill in Apple sauce-- that sometimes works.Try hand feeding her the first few mouthfulls.
Yogurt might work also.

She filters all her food, anything out of the ordinary she spits out. She was an amazing cook, and she detects any flavor or texture that is not in her food, it astonishes me that at times she does not know who I am, but knows that I added cumin in a traditional dish that should not have it in there! She ate her banana and had her coffee, so she is able to swallow, but her mind has it set on no pills!

The applesauce one sure works. So does ice cream. Maybe get ice cream with nuts in it. Jeanne Gibbs' answer rocks.

Lots of potassium in orange juice 500mg per cup. Even more in prune juice, 700mg per cup. Chocolate milk 450mg. Better than pills.

FYI: One USP10 mEq capsule of potassium = 750 mg.

Madleine, it could be in her mind her body is telling her not to take that pill because of certain side effects.

If one can get liquid forms of said meds, there are pharmacies that will add flavoring to the liquid, such as cherry.... it depends on the meds if flavoring can be added.

My dad now wants to chew all his pills, or he plops them in his cereal.. or soup. We asked the Dr,, he laughed. As long as they go down it's better than nothing! we really try with the ones that are really not to be chewed.. but you can only do so much. thank Goodness the Tums can be chewed!!

Oh and try to explain no food for 30 minutes means after the LAST pill, not when you start.. it can take 30 minutes to get one in him...

Pamzimmrrt I understand your trials and tribulations with your dad. My mom takes thyroid pills, which you're supposed to take alone on an empty stomach and not eat for some time later. With no short-term memory and a girl coming in to give her meds in the morning, forget that! She takes them with the rest of her morning pills and eats her breakfast at the same time. We just kept upping the dosage until she was where she needed to be. You can only do so much with some of these medication instructions! Although I know some aren't to be crushed..I think that is a bit more critical.

My Dr would applaud you Blannie!! And so do I

Ah, Madleine, you are facing a different task than I was. My husband understood why he was taking pills and cooperated with it, but became less and less able to swallow them. The grape pop worked well, with his cooperation. It sure wouldn't have "fooled" him.

Is you mother, other than memory problems, in her "right mind"? Has she explained why she has decided "no pills"? I wonder if it would be possible to work that angle. Start with the most important pill. Explain (at her level of understanding) what the pill is for, how it will improve her life, and what might happen if she doesn't take it. Tell you you would really like it if she would take it. If she is mistakenly thinking that the pills are "heroic measures" and she has decided not to prolong her life, it might help her to hear that this pill is not going to prevent her dying, it is only going to help prevent her from feeling dizzy when she stands up. You know what her level of understanding is in this stage, so you can judge whether this might help at all.

pamstegman, my doctor wants me to take 1500 mg of potassium over and above what I already get from food. I hate that particular pill and I wouldn't mind getting the extra potassium from extra food. But I can't imagine what 3 glasses of orange juice a day would do to my blood sugar levels. And a pint of prune juice? Forget it! When a doctor prescribes a nutritional supplement rather than just advises you to eat more of certain foods, there is generally a practical reason for it.

Flavored applesauce works with my mom.
Other med problems: refusing to take new meds prescribed by dr., refusing to take increased dose, And the new item is stating that I already gave her these today. Very frustrating to have this same conversation over and over.

Dissolvable vitamins are an option. They sell them at iherb. In addition, has your Mom ever tried d-mannose for UTI's? You can buy it in powder form. My folks always got another UTI fairly soon after taking antibiotics. Although antibiotics do work, please read up on d-mannose, if you are not already familiar with it.

But antibiotics? Can they be crushed? Don't they have hundreds of "bits" in them?

Angela, there are so many different antibiotics out there, you would need to ask your pharmacist whether yours can be crushed. If not I would be asking the doctor if there is a different option.
BTW, kids take liquid antibiotics, and years ago it was common to get a penicillin shot, so there are options out there.

Oh I just went ahead and spilled out the powder into a little cranberry juice,hope that's okay

I think you should call your pharmaacist @nd ask

Yes I did that thanks.Also as they made mum feel sick,I contacted GP to ask if we could just stop taking them,and she said 4 days have helped her medically,it's okay to stop if she is feeling sick,and making her very confused(on top of the oxynorm and sreroid pills)