Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Mary Poppins said a spoonful of sugar helped the medicine go down.
Marsh Pharmacy has done Miss Poppins one better - the pharmacists are now offering 26 different flavors, which they can add to any liquid medication dispensed to help their customers follow their doctors' orders.
According to Al Coy, registered pharmacist for the Warsaw Marsh Supermarket, a new service being offered by Marsh and FlavoRx will help young and old alike take their medication as scheduled.
"It's simply a matter of taking one of several flavors and adding it to the medication," Coy said. "It definitely helps parents who are having problems getting their kids to take the medicine.
"But it's also not just for kids," he added. "We've found it helpful with our geriatric customers, too."
The new service carries a $3 charge and can be used with either prescription or over-the-counter medicines, Coy said.
The current flavorings include: sour apple, banana, blueberry, bubblegum/grape, butterscotch, cherry, chocolate, fruit punch, grape, lemon/lime, lemon, orange, raspberry, root beer, pina colada, pineapple, strawberry, vanilla, watermelon, blackberry, cinnamon, coconut, coffee, licorice, peach and peppermint stick.
Another benefit of the service is the ability to change the flavor of medication that is already flavored, Coy said.
"That's one of the things that amazes me," Coy said. "We can take a medication and change the flavor, too.
"The liquid antibiotic Amoxicillin is prescribed for children and is already bubblegum flavored," he said. "We had some parents come in saying the little boy wouldn't take it because he didn't like the bubblegum flavor, so we changed it to orange and that solved their problem."
Marsh has offered the service for almost a month, Coy added, so they have only five to 10 flavoring requests per week.
"As the word gets out, we expect that number to go up," he said. "I'm not sure that many doctors even know about it."
While the service seems to help with some customers, Coy said, Marsh hasn't made a strong effort to promote it.
"We don't really push the system because we don't have enough people on duty all the time, but we'll do it if we're asked," he said.
The Marsh pharmacy will also flavor medications from other drugstores as well, Coy added.
"The prescription doesn't have to be a Marsh-filled prescription," he said.
