Yes, there is a chewable option – but be careful!

Most forms of chewable calcium contain calcium carbonate, which tends to cause constipation when you take a lot of it. Calcium citrate is the form of calcium in Citracal Maximum, the one that we advise you to get. If you go to your pharmacy and pick up a chewable calcium, it will most likely contain calcium carbonate or tricalcium phosphate – you likely won’t be able to find a chewable one with calcium citrate in the big-name pharmacies.

But if you really do not do well with large pills

There is an option: Solaray Calcium Citrate Chewable. You can buy it online, at Whole Food, or in vitamin stores. It’s not as common as Citracal Maximum, so you usually cannot find it at the big-name pharmacies.

Each pill of Solaray calcium citrate chewable has 250 mg of calcium, so if you are replacing the Citracal with this, you should start with 6 pills per day, then taper (6 per day for a week, then 4 per day for a week, then 2 per day). Also: this does not have Vitamin D. You will need to take a separate Vitamin D pill. Vitamin D pills tend to be tiny, and some of them will dissolve in your mouth. Take any over-the-counter Vitamin D3. You should take 1000 units of Vitamin D daily. If you have significant bone loss, we may tell you to increase this. You do not need to take Vitamin D with every dose of calcium. We want you to spread the calcium out throughout the day, but Vitamin D can be taken once a day.