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What type chewable vitamins do you give your kids?

12 years ago

I have been doing the spongy colored ones from Costco, not kirkland but the name escapes me. Any good websites or recommendation?

Thanks

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Comments (11)

terezosa / terriks
12 years ago
My kids are grown now, but I didn't regularly give my kids vitamin pills. There is a lot of evidence that vitamin supplements may do more harm than good. Many foods like cereal, milk and OJ are already fortified with vitamins. I know that it can be difficult, but the best way for kids to get vitamins is through fruits and veggies.
golddust
12 years ago
Another mom who did not give vitamins because I didn't trust the labs who sanctioned them. And this subject has been in the news again recently. Sneak good nutrition into the things they like. Blenders are a God Send for feeding picky kids. Tomatoes cover most greens if they are blended and most kids like catsup.

The trick is to hide nutrients.
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Sometimes I feel like my own family is a micro-experiment where I get to see first hand how much genetics vs environment might play into things. As an example, when each of my 4 children were born, once we came home from the hospital, I had a one month "quarantine" for lack of a better way to put it. The baby did not leave the house except for necessary doctors visits and we did not have visitors. This was intentionally done for two reasons. One was to protect my newborns extremely fragile immune system and the other was to allow ourselves as a family unit to adjust to this new reality. I've also never sent my kids to a daycare or nanny so they have all had basically the same (non)exposure to other children in their preschool years. My 1st and 3rd both have the same blood type, look remarkably similar in face shape as well as general body composition (between 5 and 8 percent on height/weight charts) and both have had to have tubes in their ears and generally get sick more frequently. My 2nd and 4th both have the same blood type, look remarkably similar in face shape as well as general body composition (between 50 and 75 percent on height/weight charts) and both get sick less often and when they do get sick, they bounce back faster than the other two. All 4 have been raised in the same environment, had the same limited exposure to others as a young child, been taught the importance of hand washing and general hygiene AND gone to the same pediatrician so they have had the same medical care. When my 2nd was 2 years old, she was severely burned. The burn doctors suggested, as part of her treatment, that she begin taking a daily multi vitamin. She and DD1 both began getting a multivitamin every night for a year. I saw no difference in getting sick before or after we were taking multivitamins daily. In my personal opinion, genetics definitely play a role, and a far greater one than taking or not taking a vitamin might have. The rest comes down to proper hand washing.
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folkvictorian
12 years ago
Hi, Peyton, I try to find gummies that have iron in them, but any kind my DS (5 years old) will eat is what I want. (This is in contrast to his cousin, who begs for celery and broccoli at the grocery store.) Anyway, if DS is shopping with me he votes for superheros, etc. Right now we've got "Marvel Heroes" from Target and he's happy with the taste ("no artificial flavors or colors").

I haven't checked GNC or any other places that specialize in nutrition, but they'd have something containing all of the good stuff. I always check to make sure the vitamins don't contain artificial sweeteners, since I'm sensitive to aspartame.

Have you tried something and it doesn't work for your kids?
golddust
12 years ago
GNC uses rubber stamp labs according to the expose I watched recently. Dateline interviewed people who lost their hair and experienced kidney damage after using GNC products.

Dateline purposely added Poison ingredients in a nutrition concoction; took it to the same lab GNC uses. The lab didn't find the poison and Dateline suggested many labs may not perform tests.

It's an unregulated industry and buyer beware.
(iPhone post)
terezosa / terriks
12 years ago
Be especially careful about vitamins with iron in them. When my oldest son was four he got into the childproof cap of a bottle of chewable vitamins that were on an upper shelf in the kitchen cabinet. I wasn't sure how many he ingested, so I called poison control. I administered ipecac, but they wanted him to be seen at the hospital because iron overdose can be very dangerous. At the hospital they gave him activated charcoal, and kept him overnight for observation. This happened almost 30 years ago, and remains fresh in my mind.
Unless your child has a diagnosed deficiency I just don't think that the risks outweigh the benefits.

Here is a link that might be useful: Iron overdose danger
folkvictorian
12 years ago
Well, there you go, Peyton! Any more child-rearing questions?
User
12 years ago
Check out Vitafusion brand. I haven't done any digging around about them but my BIL has a good opinion and feels the same as I do (below). They're a gummy vitamin and there aren't any artificial sweetners or colors in there.

In general, I know people have different opinions on vitamins and not all are created equal but the soil isn't the same as it was many years ago and lacks nutrients. IMO you'd have to eat tons fo raw fruits and veggies and I don't believe even that's enough. And the cooking process takes out what's left of the good stuff.
sheesh
12 years ago
Good grief!
User
12 years ago
Terriks, the same thing happened to my children! I used to give them vitamins shaped like Flintstone characters and kept them in the top kitchen cabinet. One day when I was taking a shower my five year old pulled a chair over to the counter, got up on it and pulled two bottles of vitamins down. He opened both and gave one to his three-year-old sister and they started munching away. Neither could tell me how many they had eaten so I took them to our pediatrician. She gave them both ipecac, but my daughter had iron toxicity and had to stay in the hospital overnight. I threw the vitamins away forever that day, and they haven't suffered one bit from not taking extra vitamins above what they naturally get in a balanced diet. Oh---and I asked my son how he got the "child proof" cap off, and he said he just read the directions on it.... push and turn!
tishtoshnm Zone 6/NM
12 years ago
Well, these are temporarily out stock but I like Dr. Fuhrman's Pixie Vites. They are not chewable but a powder, kind of like Pixie-Stix so if you need to blend them to get them into a reluctant child, that is possible. Read the ingredient list, pretty darn cool, if you ask me...

Here is a link that might be useful: Pixie-Vite
peytonroad
Original Author
12 years ago
thanks for all the heads up. My kids are older so I don't worry about overdosing. I like the previous post on the pixie dust stuff. They would love that in there water bottles!thanks!
I also will check out the vitafusion too!

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