Hannah Newton. Credit: Hannah Newton.
Hannah Newton, an historian of science with an interest in how previous generations coped with childhood illness, digs up some 17th century tips for making medicine taste better and finds evidence for common sense and compassion among the doctors of the day. Practitioners tried to overcome problems of taste by using distraction. The French midwifery expert François Mauriceau suggested that infants suffering from painful teething should be given 'a Silver Coral, furnish'd with small Bells, to divert the Child'." - —Hannah Newton Doctors and parents know from experience that it can be difficult persuading a child to take medicine. Averse to bitter tastes, young patients often refuse or spit out their medicines. Julie Mennella, a scientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Pennsylvania, has warned that children's non-compliance is a 'public health priority', and in some instances may impede recovery from illness, or even be life-threatening. Help may be at hand, however: scientists at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society have launched a new compound that inhibits the tongue's of perception of bitter tastes, nicknamed the 'bitter blocker GIV3616'. This sophisticated substance may come to replace Mary Poppins' method of adding a spoonful of sugar to disguise bitter tastes.
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