Calcium citrate

I'm having a hard time with my calcium citrate pills. My doctor said to take 1200 -1500 whatevers of calcium citrate and my pills are 250 each which means six pills. And they said don't swallow them whole.

I just got regular pills because only chewable ones I found were gigantimous and you still had to chew 4. I'm talking size of a thick half dollar.

So anyway, I got the regular pills and crushed them up in powder and put them in soup the first day. They didn't dissolve so it was just like eating horrible horrible soup. 

Next I tried cutting them, but the pieces came out jagged so when I tried to swallow it got stuck in my throat and i had to cough it up.

Finally I just bite off half the pill, grind it up in my front teeth and then take a drink to wash that down. So far that's the best way but still horrible.

Do you guys have any suggestions for brands or what do you do? I was told to specifically take calcium citrate which was harder to find.

 I buy the Bariartic Advantage Calcium, in the lemon chewable. It's like a starburst candy. I also have to take 5 of them, but I look at it like a treat! You can call them and they will send you samples of their products too! makes it kinda nice that way.

Costco sells a liquid calcium citrate.  It's not too bad!

Hey Mel, what brand does Costco carry?  I'm looking to try something else in addition to my Citracal...getting sick of the huge pills.  Thanks.

Laura

I took the calcium citrate pills and put them in a juice glass with an ounce or two of water.  Just let them sit there for 20 minutes or so and they break down into kind of a wet powder. You can then add this to a shake or other liquid. I like a drinkable yogurt type drink called Kefir which took the dissolved pills fairly well and disguised it well.

I was glad with I was far enough out to just start taking the big pills again at about 8-10 weeks though.

I use Adora calcium supplements. Yes, I know that they are not calcium citrate, but I am ok with that.  They taste increadable and I never miss a day.

adoracalcium.com

mary

Vitamin World sells a calcium citrate liquid with magnesium. It isn't too bad. A little chalky, but you can down it in one shot.

www.vitacost.com

Offers a great assortment of liquid calcium citrate in many flavors, and brands. I tried the strawberry, it was a *****alky, but tolerable.

The one I ordered also had Vitamin D and Magnesium.

I can't do any of the chewables or tablets/caplets of the calcium citrate.

I buy calcium citrate capsules (by Twinlab, but there are a couple other brands out there, too). Because they are capsules, you could just pull apart the capsule and dump the powder into a drink or food.

Also, if you have calcium citrate tablets, drop them in a glass of water or Crystal Light or something and let them dissolve. Drink the drink, and leave the crumbly white sediment at the bottom of the glass - those are fillers from the tablet, while the actual calcium dissolves into the liquid.

My smaller vitamins I would crush and mix with a spoon full of food (like when you are kids) and swallow.  As time when along I was able to swallow the whole pill with a spoon of say yogurt.  I was about 2 months out before I could swallow my calcium pills with ease (one at a time of course).

Honestly I didn't worry about vitamins the first month.  During the first month I was worried about dehydration which is common post op and then getting in protein.  The vitamins came in time.

Ms Shell