Here is a niche tip: If you, like me, sometimes have swallowing issues—well, let me pause here and say FIRST of all you should see a doctor about it, to rule out Various Scary Things. But if you have seen a doctor, and they have done the barium swallow thing and an endoscopy, and they say, no, you’re basically okay, you just have a weird swallowing thing where sometimes it feels like a bite of food won’t go down and then you have to hack it up like a cat, and what a delight it is to get older, in THAT case, I have a possible tip for you to try when swallowing large pills: take them interspersed with FOOD in addition to water. That is, I used to take my pills after breakfast, or after dinner, with drinks of water, and sometimes the bigger pills would feel bad going down, or feel as if they were getting a little stuck. Now I put the pills in a little bowl near me while I’m eating, and periodically throughout the meal I take a pill with a little drink of water or coffee and THEN I take a bite of food and THEN another little drink, and that seems to work much more consistently well.
Oh! And while I have you here, let me tell you about something many of you are likely already LONG SINCE doing, but others of you are going to be more like me and maybe you haven’t yet thought of this exciting news: you can reuse MANY TYPES of plastic bags. I have gone through several levels of this. The first level was boring: just reusing the plastic bags from the grocery store or Target or whatever—which, now we mostly use cloth bags, so I don’t get as many of these as I used to. The second level was a bigger leap for me: years ago, I wanted to reduce our food-storage plastic bag usage, and yet there were things I wanted to put in plastic bags: leftover pizza; raw bacon; cheese. It occurred to me somehow, perhaps by divine inspiration, that many of our purchased food items were already packaged in what were evidently food-safe plastic bags, and that we were throwing those bags away; we could instead REUSE some of those bags, FOR FREE, before throwing them out. So for example: we buy a pack of hamburger rolls in a bag; we use the hamburger rolls; we then put the opened package of raw bacon into that bag, and we can in good conscience throw away the raw-bacon-fatty bag after that. We did not WASTE a plastic bag on the raw bacon, and yet we still got to put the bacon into a bag; the bag itself got TWO useful uses, instead of just one as it usually does.
Oh sure: you could put the bacon into a plastic/glass CONTAINER instead. I’m not saying you couldn’t. We use reusable containers for MOST food storage. What I AM saying is that if you’d LIKE to use a convenient disposable bag for gross raw meat, or for food you’re bringing somewhere with you and it would be inconvenient/icky to bring the containers back home, or for the assorted blocks of cheese that don’t fit nicely into any of your containers, or WHATEVER, that there are FREE BAGS we are ALREADY THROWING AWAY AFTER ONE USE, and those bags can instead live a second life. You can use a disposable plastic bag AND not be adding to plastic-bag usage, is what I mean. The BEST bags (and to my children it is a strong marker of age that I have strong and detailed opinions about this) are the ZIP-CLOSE bags that come filled with things such as tortillas. A free ziplock bag!!! I can’t believe we used to carelessly pitch those into the trash, when we could instead shove them into the bags/foil/parchment drawer until the drawer is so full of bags, they start falling down back behind the drawer and ending up mingling with the pan lids!
My third level of this thought is this: I had been wondering WHAT I could use as bags for scooping the cat litter, now that we were using reusable bags at the grocery store and not accumulating vast heaps of the thin plastic bags I used to use. I had wondered about taking bags from bag-recycling bins in store lobbies, and I do still think that’s a possibility, but I am somewhat grossed out by the idea of what condition those bags might be in (wet, sticky, etc.). So it was a relief to think of another idea. I don’t know if this is the same for you, but I recently realized we naturally acquire MANY cat-litter-quality bags. I ordered a pair of pants: they arrived wrapped in a plastic bag, which was then put into a plastic mailing envelope. That is TWO bags for scooping cat litter into. I would not put FOOD into those bags—but they are PERFECT for cat litter. Similarly: the empty spinach bag, the large empty chips bag, the bag I used for raw bacon and was about to throw into the trash. A SECOND (or THIRD) LIFE for plastic that was GOING INTO THE TRASH ANYWAY. Very pleasing.
Using those bread (etc.) bags is a genius move!
We still get a paper newspaper and we use the sleeves for cat litter.
Oh, this is a great tip! My workplace gets several papers, and they throw away the sleeves: they would not mind if I took them.
I have read about your swallowing thing for years and it just occurred to me that the weird thing that I have happen sounds very similar. Every once in a while, it seems as though I can’t swallow anything….and it doesn’t really get solved until I either spit out the food or kind of hack it up like a cat (to use your great description). It’s almost like the tube that the food uses to get to my stomach has a lid on it. It seems to happen when I’m rushing to eat fast or when I’m trying to talk to someone and eat at the same time. It doesn’t hurt and it seems to pass quickly. But now I have some ways to describe it to my doctor.
Speech therapist here — we do therapy for swallowing problems. For those reading who may not yet have talked to doctors etc, one other thing to rule out is acid reflux — can make things go down your esophagus more slowly/feel stuck/come back up.
Also, yes to taking pills while eating — also sometimes swallowing whole pills with a spoonful of puree (applesauce, yogurt, pudding) instead of with water can help.
Yes…my dad has taken acid reflux medication for years, even though he didn’t have problems with heart burn, because he did have problems with food getting stuck in his esophagus due to extensive scarring from acid reflux. It was extremely painful and ended up with him in the ER a few times. He had to have a procedure to widen his esophagus and that, with the medicine, has kept the problem at bay.
Sending some love to speech therapists! (My mom has developed cognitive issues, ANOTHER thing speech therapists can help with.)
Taking pills with purees makes so much sense. I sometimes have trouble swallowing pills, and I find it helps to think about swallowing the water rather than thinking about the pill. It seems like that would be easier with something pureed.
My sister (physical therapist) recently told me this, and since it took me 44 years before I learned this, there might be others who don’t know this yet: keep your head faced downwards when swallowing pills. As in: don’t do what you see in movies and basically every other media depiction of people taking medication, which is to put a pill in your mouth, add some water, then throw your head back to swallow. No! Instead, put the pill in your mouth, add a sip of water, then bend your head forward as if nodding yes and swallow.
(Again, Swistle, you probably know this, but there might be others like me who don’t and it makes life so much easier once you take pills this way!)
Also, unrelated, I love reusing supposedly single-use items, makes me feel like I’m screwing the system in a million small ways. Reusing packaging materials for increasingly more dirty use (usually ending with cat-litter) is one of those ways :)
I was coming here to say this. Think of the esophagus like a balloon – when you stretch it, it gets narrower, and that’s basically what you’re doing when you tip your head back. Putting your chin to your chest opens the passageway a little more, or at least doesn’t stretch it out, so there’s more room for food, drinks, pills to go down.
I learned so much today! ^_^
There are some things we can’t recycle here that I reuse for kitty litter disposal purposes. For example: paper ice cream cartons; #5 plastic containers, like the full size yogurt containers.. Anything like that I save for litter scooping.
After our previous cat died, it made me so sad that we were just throwing these items away without repurposing. (both because of the small waste without reuse and because this meant he was gone) When our new girls arrived, I was so happy to be saving these items again to scoop litter!
I use grocery store plastic produce bags for litter. Usually have 7-10 per week from buying fruit/veggies
This is a weird throwback to my younger life. My mother grew up in the Great Depression and would reuse tin foil until it disintegrated—and plastic bags until they contained bits of evidence of having many, many past lives. I’m not like her—not exactly—but I still wince every time I throw out a bit of aluminum foil and I gnaw on pork-chop bones until not one shred of meat remains. Well, we can’t any of us fully escape the brainwashing of our pasts, but sometimes it can be a good thing, I guess!
My grammy grew up during the Great Depression, so she always had a drawer with bread twist ties in it, and she saved elastic bands on a door knob.
I don’t save the twisty ties because I a) have a habit of losing them immediately after opening the bread and b) don’t know wtf I would do with them if I kept them except have a drawer full of twisty ties. I do keep elastic bands on a door knob still, though they seem less hardy than the elastic bands of the past.
Here in Canada, “they” have started using cardboard clips (square with a slot & hole) for bread and buns. (They also have the sell-by date on). They don’t really work to keep using to re-close the bag over and over (and, I should imagine, worse if you have small hands doing this). So we saved the “older” hardish plastic versions that you still sometimes got during the transition, and came in different colo[u]rs. Now when we buy bread, we throw away the card clip and replace with one from the collection.
We also reuse bread bags as food wrap. And I had not thought of reusing the ziplock style bags I get frozen veg in, but generally, the zip parts company with the bag after a few uses, so the vegetables end up in a bought zip lock anyway!
Nowhere here has thin grocery bags anymore, so I lost my trashcan liners, and now have to buy bags for that. Which is taking things in the wrong direction imo.
This is the way. I have also hoarded a small baggie of the plastic bread tabs, because the cardboard ones are useless. I have seen plastic ones FOR SALE on Kijiji.
My depression era Grandma also taught me to save and reuse foil, and plastic wrap, and reuse glass jars and yogurt containers for leftovers or freezing soups etc. It is hard for me to recycle the plastic containers and glass jars we use, but I can’t reuse them all.
A former coworker of mine mentioned that he prefers drinking orange juice or milk when taking pills, something with “a little more heft” than water. And that changed my ability to swallow larger pills so much that I regularly think of him with far more fondness than anything work-related would have ever caused.
I do buy bags for the cat litter, but I buy the bag of cheapest possible nappy sacks (not sure what you’d call them in the US. Definitely not diaper bags). I think I pay 70p or so for 300 but obviously don’t have to buy them often for our single cat. They’re the right size, thin, hole-less and slightly scented, ie perfect. I never think to save other plastic bags (other than shopping ones) as we can recycle those here so I just do that, but reusing them again first would be even better, wouldn’t it, so I may try in future, thank you!
Once i realized you could use rolls of pooper scooper doggie doo bags to scoop CAT litter….my whole world changed. Seriously. We still use bread bags and such but the dog bags are exponentially cheaper than what I was using and the perfect size. Plus, sometimes I buy the scented ones so the poop even smells better on its way to the larger trashcan. Life hacks.
I had a pill get stuck (briefly) in my throat this morning and I thought of you. SHOULD HAVE TAKEN IT WITH FOOD, SUZANNE.
(It is for my skin, and it’s the WORST kind of tablet. A) A tablet and B) fat/tall and C) round instead of oblong. Why are pills made this way? Shouldn’t all pills be made for Ease Of Swallowing?! I am asking in outrage, but also perhaps you know, considering your background with pharmaceuticals????)
We avoid plastic bags for litter altogether. A large bucket from home depot with a screw on lid works like a charm. Contains 100% of the odor from two cats, the lid only comes off for a few seconds each day to dump the scooped in. We take it out and dump it once a week to ten days. That 10 days, for two indoor cats (10lbs, 19lbs) is barely half the bucket. Though, we do have a massive dumpster also
I love the reuse plastic bag push. I’ll add a push for reusing glass jars. No good for kitty litter but excellent for leftovers, especially those that are likely to be microwaved, or likely to be neglected in opaque plastic containers.
Separately, because I saved the plastic bread tags for a 100th Day of School project I have a LOT. If anyone needs some, I’d love to share/send them to you.