Get your kids to take their supplements

A question I get asked time and time again.. “how do I get my kids to take their supplements?” Yep that is a tough one and for me it was… let’s say… a Battle Royale!!

As many of you already know I was fairly convinced there were issues with my son from a young age so with this in mind I was seeing a Naturopath very early in the peace so he did get used to being given things to take when he was young. Not to say this made it any easier nor was he any more compliant.

Initially it was definitely a fight. I would mix things up into a juice, use a syringe and virtually sit on him to make him take it. This would then result in the majority of it being spat back out at me so clearly that strategy didn’t work.

Then there was trying to put it in his food…  ever tried Weetbix with Fish Oil???  Nope… me either… let’s just say that didn’t work either!!

So we got creative and here’s what we tried… 

Download a copy of hints and tips here.

1. For kids that don’t mind a fizzy drink take the powders with mineral water, the bubbles help to reduce the sweetness and for some kids this feels like a “treat”.
2. Mix up the supplements into their favourite juice and freeze into ice cubes, 1 dose per cube. They can suck on this or add to a cup of water to have a subtle flavouring.
3. Put in a fun glass with a paper straw and get them to drink it, that way it will bypass the taste buds at the front of the mouth.
4. Mix into some yogurt with stewed fruit, mashed banana or vanilla essence, honey and cinnamon – this works particularly well with probiotics and probiotic powders. 
5. Using a good quality gelatine make some jelly cups with their favourite juice or even a herbal tea, 1 dose per cup of jelly
6. If your kids like a smoothie or milkshake mix into those.
7. For very young infants simply mixing with a small amount of water and using a pipette to dispense near the back of their throat to avoid taste buds, if they’re still breast feeding you can put some of the powder (especially if they’re probiotic powders) around the nipple before the little one latches on or put a little on your finger or their pacifier and let them suck it off.
8. For herbal medicines, these can be added to meals, they aren’t heat affected and generally can be easily disguised. Otherwise they can go into a small amount of juice and have a go at the syringe option.
9. For those, like my son who are now used to taking their supplements / medicines via syringe, mix into a small amount of their favourite juice and syringe. It does go to the back of the mouth and avoids their tastebuds to an extent.
10. Bribery is also an option for those who like to negotiate, like my son. I got to the point where I took away the iPad with access only given when he did what I wanted him to do. This meant taking his supplements and in return he’d get 10 minutes on the iPad.

There’s obviously other strategies that you may like to employ depending on your child and ultimately you know them the best and what’s going to motivate them. The one thing to remember is you’re only doing this because it’s in their best interest so be persistent and even though some days it seems near impossible, tomorrow is always a new day.

From the team at Mumma’s Own.

xx

                     Download a copy of hints and tips here.

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