Does A Spoonful Of Sugar Really Help The Medicine Go Down?

I must admit iv never had a spoonful of sugar, just the thought of it is enough to make your teeth rot!!! With my kids we always have a glass of juice to hand if the medicine is particularly disgusting, but the medicine they make for kids now is mainly fruity tasting so not too bad, medicine for adults however is still rather disgusting....I had to take some cough mixture the other week and i honestly thought it was going to come back up, it tasted vile and burnt my throat and chest as it went down (i think that they tried to numb the area rather than make it better as I couldnt feel anything for about 15 minutes after!!!!)All I could do was drink water to get rid of the rank taste!!!! hugs jessica

Hai Wolfie, Whenever I have to swallow a tablet or a medicine that is bitter, will try to put deeper into mouth and gulp. If it is a liquid medicine, then also will do the same. Taking sugar with medicine, as far as I know, may have some bad effect. I could kill the effect/concentration of the medicine. Taking water, after taking a liquid medicine is also not good.

No it doesn't, my Grandmother used to believe in that and yuk it was awful, I used to spit it straight out lol and then I got a clip round the ear for doing that I was never to sure what I preferred the Clip round the Ear every time I spat it out or just suffering and swallowing, well it took 4 clips, a red Ear, and a few Tears cause the ear hurt before I would swallow it xxx

A good medicine tastes bitter. However, it is really not good to take surgar so as to swallow the medicine more easily. The surgar will inhibit the effect that the medicine is supposed to work. Also, the ingredient of the medicine is kind of complicated. For example, the protein will react with Fe, Ca,then the medicine become precipitant, turbid. Actaully, the reaction product would possibly be poisonous

That saying, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, was meant for children, I think. I remember when my kids were babies and I had to get them to take medicine I would crush it into a spoon and add something sweet to it, like sugar and water, or jam, or fruit baby food. Something sweet so they want to suck it down. Then when they were older, like tots, it was the only way they would take it. I bet till they were about 6 or 7 years old, maybe even older, I had to put something sweet with it. My daughter is now 25 years old and she can't just put a pill in her mouth and use water to drink it down. She has to have something solid with it, like a piece of bread or a mouthful of apple.

I dont know about helpinig it go down, but it does help it ork faster as sugar helps the body metabolise medication.but that doesnt sound so good in song!

Hmmmm. I don't know if it helps the medicine go down, but it does make the hiccups go away! There are easier ways to make the hiccups go away, but if they don't work, I do sometimes resort to swallowing a spoonful of sugar. It seems to work every time! As far as making medicine go down, if it tastes nasty I just plug my nose. You can't taste what you can't smell, so if you plug your nose, swallow the medicine and wash it down with a drink quickly you barely taste it!

I remember having to pin the kids down at the shoulders to get them to take their yucky medicine. The doctor gave me that idea. What a battle! When I poured the medicine in the measured container and handed it to them to drink themselves they did drink it and never put up a fight. When they made a grimaced face I told them to go brush their teeth and tongues. Mint usually combats the gross taste.

Hello dear wolfie. Your discussion reminds me of my childhood when I had to take some bitter medicine. My mother used to offer me a spoonful of white sugar after taking the medicine when I was a kid, but not after I became older. Now I am not afraid of any bitter medicine and I don't have to eat white sugar because of the bitter medicine. Take care, wolfie.

Well my kids are OK as their medicine is usually pretty nice to taste, apart from the ones with no sugar in, they are really bitter. If I am offered the choice I usually go for the ones with the sugar in for the kids as I know then that there is a good chance of them taking it. Not so long ago my daughter had to have some medicine, and it was really bitter, she had to have it and because she is used to her medicine usually tasting quite yummy she took it straight away, of course once the taste hit her throat it went down and came straight back up again! Of course then she would not take any medicine from me for ages. ] I remember though you know, when my middle boy was a baby, just a few months old, he had to have some antiobiotics for something, cannot remember what now. But I could not get him to take them and I went back to the docs and they gave me a syringe and I had to syringe it down the back of his throat so that he would take it. How horrible is that?!!!

Well I don't know and will never know cause I don't intend to try that sugar thing. Here is how I take my multi-vitamins. I'm 22 by the way. I have two liquids...one is a multi-vitamin and one is filled with B vitamins, very recommended for ladies for obvious reasons. I also take a small (thank goodness!) sized Vitamin A pill. Now you might laugh at me for this. The Vitamin A pill is the easiest to down and the Vitamin B liquid is the hardest for me to swallow. The liquid multi-vitamin is in the middle ground. The taste ain't all bad but it ain't as bad as the vitamin B which claims to have this orange flavour to it (yeah right!) and the multi-vitamin claims to have this cherry flavour in it...uh? possibly? I dunno. Okay, so this is what I do... I put the Vitamin A pill in my mouth Pour out a spoon of the multi-vitamin and put it in my mouth and pour out a spoon of the Vitamin B liquid last of all and stick it in there. Believe it or not, the multi-vitamin liquid helps to mask the flavour of the Vitamin B liquid just a little and make it more bearable and in one big gulp... it goes down. Now yes, there is a taste in my mouth after wards but I NEVER drink water or anything else for that matter. I just sorta smack my lips a few times and go about my business. But I do hate taking vitamins either way.

Hi ya wolfie34 Well there was those days when they used to give you polio on a sugar cube, you remember that surely? You could still taste the medicine as the sugar certainly didn't mask it much. These days they make kids medicine sugar free and strawberry or banana flavour. My kids aren't so struck on the banana flavoured one but then I am not surprised. I am quite good at taking medicine, I just take it and deal with it!!

before my daughter came here in USA, she had 6 vaccinations in the Philippines. someone told me that i should give her a spoonful of sugar so she wont have fever after the vaccination. it did helped a lot. she really didnt have a fever. i suggested it to others and it did worked for them too.

I can honestly say YES a spoon full of sugar does help the medicine go down. As a child when I had to take any medicine (in pill form) at my grandmothers house she would mash it between two spoons to break the pill, add a tiny bit of water then add sugar and mix it up for all of us kids. She did the same to my father when he was little too. I always looked forward to taking my medicine after that and if I would have to take any with my mom I would ask her to do the same thing. I find that at times even as an adult if I know something will taste nasty I will pull out my spoon full of sugar! We never took it after the medicine so maybe that is what makes the difference. I think with today's medicine for children that method is not needed, unless it is something like penecillin. However if the time ever comes up for my own children to need a little help with their medicine I will surley add sugar!

No way! I guess that would make things worse for me. I have always been lousy swallower, so to say. My mom never actually could make me swallow it. She would make me swallow pills stuffed inside bananas most of the times. I still remember those trauma time. And wolfie,even now I am very bad with it.

I couldnt eat that sugar like that. I guess some people can. The sugar would be worse for me then the medicine lol I would just try to take it fast and be done with it. I am lucky because I rarely have to take any medicine that isnt a pill.

hio wolfie hey you are behind the times, my pharmacy now offers a lot of kids medications in various flavors, said to make the kids not mind taking the medication. I tasted some of it and it tastes more vile than sugar even whe I had to give medicine to my kids when they were little, I would always give them a small glass of seven up to drink afterwards. My woman obgyn suggested that and I found it works. The clean citrus flavor washes away any lingering bad taste. Now as a diabetic having a low blood sugar reaction a spoon ful of sugar might just work. lo lol lol

Well my dear wolfie! Yes, I have a spoonful of sugar story! When I was a little one my Mom when she had to give me or my brother an aspirin (they didn't make children's aspirin then) she would actually melt the aspirin on the spoon in some water with some sugar! Than was the only way to get us to take the aspirin because it tasted so bad and bitter! I remember that very clearly! So that was the only time that we did have a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down!

Haha, I think if I tried to take a spoonful of sugar to make my medicine go down, I would only succeed in choking myself! I wonder who invented this? Did it begin with Mary Poppins or does this go far earlier? Anyway, I think water is the best thing that helps the medicine go down, whether it be in the form of syrup, pill, tablet, capsule, or powder. I also read that it's not good to down your medicine with juice or soda, because they may contain ingredients that will react with your medicine in a bad way. If the medicine tastes really foul, I still would use water -- lots of it!

well, i would just bear with the bitterness of the medicine and never drink water or eat sugar or any other stuff to lessen the bitterness or help the taste in getting off... Smiley,