Any parent who has ever stood before a child or a pet waiting impatiently for them to take their medicine knows the struggle is all too real. While an adult may be able to force down an unpleasant taste in the spirit of feeling better, a child and even a pet will relent and emphatically refuse the care that is intended to help them for the sake of sparing their taste buds. As precious time ticks by, the medicine that could have set them on the road to feeling better sits untouched in the tiny plastic cup meant to make dispensing easy. But nothing is easy when it comes to unpleasant-tasting medicine for a child or pet.
Thankfully, flavored medications are attempting to offer a bit of relief to parents and their children. These dye-free, sugar-free, and gluten-free additions come in an array of flavors that are intended to relieve the bitterness without the battle.
What Flavors Work Best for Children?
Known as flavor compounding, pharmacists blend food-grade flavoring agents with medications to take away any bitter, salty, or sour objections children may have. From sweet to savory, the flavor selection can make taking pills an adventure instead of an ordeal. But how do you know which flavor to choose?
When it comes to saltiness that sometimes accompanies medications like antihistamines and pain relievers, fruit flavors such as strawberry, orange, cherry, lime, grape, and raspberry generally help to mask salinity. For sourness found in some antibiotics, pharmacy mixologists reach for raspberry, mango, pineapple, tangerine, and cherry. And for the bitterness that may be found in antibiotics or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) stimulants, banana, chocolate, marshmallow, mint, and caramel can all be used to dull the all-too-common prune face kids are known to make when they encounter this offensive flavor.
The bottom line is that certain medicines pair better with particular flavors than others. But if you want a flavor as unique as your child’s, we can mix up a batch of grape marshmallow caramel to hide that metallic taste in amoxicillin, too.
What Flavors Work Best for Pets?
When it comes to pets, they have their own set of preferences as far as the flavors they consider are worth begging for.
For instance, dogs tend to favor flavors like peanut butter, bacon, beef, and chicken while cats like to lean on familiar tuna, chicken, salmon, and fish flavors. Meanwhile, birds, rabbits, reptiles, and rodents prefer fruit flavors common in their diets, including apples, bananas, and strawberries while horses and ferrets prefer anything from alfalfa and molasses to chicken and liver. If you have a turtle at home, mix some cricket with peanut butter, and you may have a winning combination that will put your pet on the road to recovery.
Of course, not every flavor is going to win over every patient. You just might find that you have to try more than one flavor before bringing home the winner. If that is the case, do not worry; we will be patient in helping you find the blend that will satisfy your patient. When we do, we will be sure to make a note of it for future prescriptions.
Medicine is meant to help allergies, aches and pains, infections, long-term disorders, and a host of other ailments, but the first step is getting a child or pet to take it. If it is causing stress for both the parent and the child, there is an easier approach to getting them the help they need to feel better. And it begins with finding the right elixir for the job that does not leave a bad taste in their mouth.
Find the Right Flavor of Medication for Your Child or Pet With Assistance from a Chesapeake Pharmacist at Chesapeake Rx Today
Speak to a Chesapeake pharmacist at Chesapeake Rx about how to select the best flavor for a certain type of medicine. To learn more, call 443-249-3134 or complete an online form. We are located in Stevensville, Maryland, and we proudly serve customers in Chester and all located on Kent Island.
