******Mixing Enzymes File*******

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Mixing Suggestions for Enzyme Supplements

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Parents and/or pharmacists have reported using the following liquids

for mixing

enzymes and other supplements:

Water

Milk or milk substitutes

Fruit juices

Soda pop

Syrup: chocolate, strawberry, and cherry flavors

Kool-Aid

Humco sells a compounding-grade supplement mask in three flavors.

You may

order at 1-800-662-3435. As of April 2001, a 16 oz. bottle with

shipping,

handling, and tax sells for $12.80 and is GFCF/soy/yeast/egg free.

Call to

verify.

Foods parents have used to hide supplements:

Peanut butter

Honey

Applesauce, pear sauce

Puddings

Sorbet

Frozen fruit concentrate

Mix with butter, jelly, jam and serve on a cracker, bite of muffin,

bread, waffle, biscuit

If your child prefers to take the capsule unopened, you may want them

to

swallow it about 30 minutes before the meal if the capsule is a

veggie cap.

This insures enough time for the capsule to break down and the

enzymes to make

contact with the food. This is not an issue with gelatin capsules. If

taking

the enzyme with food, it is also advisable for the child to drink a

glass of

water or other liquid to wash the contents down to the stomach.

Enzymes won't

work unless they are in solution in the stomach.

There is a big benefit in just teaching you child to swallow

capsules. If he is

over 3, I would encourage you to do this just to make life easier for

everyone.

Kids as old as 18 months can swallow capsules, but I don't want to

get into a

potential choking issue. I taught my younger son by putting the

capsule or pill

on the back of his tongue, then had him take a drink of something,

then look

at the ceiling as he swallowed the drink. Gravity really takes over.

Now he

does 4 at a time. I have heard another parent say they tell the child

to put

their chin to their chest and this invokes a swallowing motion.

Putting a little butter, jelly or similar stuff around the capsule

makes it " taste " a bit better, and maybe will slide easier. My son

liked to coat

the pill with peanut butter.

As for food, you can put the capsule on a spoon with a little

pudding, choc

syrup, or something similar and let him " eat " it that way. Don't try

to hide

the capsule, just say he needs to take it that way, but he can choose

the food.

This gives him choice. Taking the capsule is not a choice, choosing

what to

take it with is his choice.

Does chewing the capsules invalidate the effect? I don't know about

the other

products, but I don't think enzymes taste good at all. With enzymes,

you can mix them with food or liquid. But if you take them NOT in a

capsule you need to

make sure you wash them down. Enzymes sitting in the mouth (and this

may

include chewing), will start to " burn " the tissue. A couple drinks

washes it

down with no problem. The " burning " isn't harmful, just

uncomfortable - like

when you eat a bunch of pineapple or get a sore. Enzymes won't work

on live

tissue, but they can degrade the dead surface layer leaving the fresh

live

tissue exposed and sensitive. A veggie cap may take longer to

dissolve in the

stomach. Most people take the enzymes out and mix, although you can

transfer

them to a gelatin capsule. Otherwise you may need to allow 30 minutes

for the

capsule to dissolve in the stomach. Gelatin capsules which dissolve

completely in 2 minutes.

Can enzymes be mixed with other supplements? Dr. Devin Houston

states that

most supplements aren't substrates for enzymes, especially proteases,

so the

enzymes won't interact with them. You should be able to mix all

supplements and

medicines with enzymes. Check with your doctor about specific

medicines.

An idea for mixing supplements in liquid away from home:

Gerber baby food company now has pear juice in 4 oz. plastic

bottles.

They are perfect to keep in your purse or in the glove box of the

car.

At the restaurant, I usually dump out or drink half the bottle, then

empty the enzymes into the rest. Then, put the lid on and shake it

up.

It's a great way to mix the enzymes. I have saved several of the

empty

bottles to reuse. I sometimes pre-mix them, then put them in a

lunchbox

with a freezer pack and take them with us that if I don't want to

deal

with pulling out pills. That is how I handled sending the enzymes in

my

son's lunch, too. You can buy the pear juice in a large size, too and

just fill the little saved bottles as needed. I either buy the large

Gerber

bottle at the grocery store, or organic pear juice at the health food

store,

also in a large container. If you pre-mix the enzymes in liquid, they

should

remain active for about four hours.

Other tactics reported for getting kids to take enzymes and

supplements

are as follows:

1. I mix his enzyme with honey and spread it on a small corner of his

pancakes

or sandwich or whatever, then he eats that piece first. You can try

this with

butter, nut butters, jelly, jams, etc.

2. I give my son a choice: either I put the whole capsules on the

back of his

tongue a few minutes before he eats, or he eats it mixed in the first

few bites

of his food. He generally chooses mixed in the first few bites of

food, but he

is not really a picky eater and so that is not generally a problem.

3. How about a tablespoon of chocolate syrup? I don't know if he

would need to

be standing right there to take it. Since this may become a routine,

you might

just want to have a " talk " with him and say, " Look, you need to take

this. It

keeps you from getting sick. You choose what you want to take this

with. "

4. When my kids complain or forget, I say very frankly " Either take

the

enzyme OR eat the weird GFCF stuff from the health food store. Your

choice. " That usually ends it.

5. Will your son refuse to eat if you tell him no food without taking

the

enzymes in some liquid? If he does, let him go hungry, he will not

starve.

Eventually he will get hungry enough and take it. You may have to

wait him out

as long as a day or two, but rarely has a parent had a problem after

one, maybe

2 times of this. He will not starve.

6. Does bribery work?! My son has a reward system using colored links

that

connect to make a chain. When the chain touches the floor, he gets a

reward.

7. Syring: You can buy several kinds of infant oral syringes

(pharmacy or grocery store), or use some that came with different

medicines used previously.

They may be slightly different sizes. Hold the tube with left hand

with your

index finger covering the hole. Pour in whatever liquid you want to

prepare

(juice then crushed capsules, liquids, cod liver oil, etc). Then get

a piece

of spagetti and mix the solution up. Then get the pusher part. You

can push

it all the way down by gently moving it at an angle, wiggling to let

bits of

air out. At this point you can take your finger off of the hole and

none of

the solution will come out. It's airtight. At first you may need to

hold your

child still to be able to shoot it all in his mouth. Soon he will

learn to just

open his mouth.

8) Hiding things in food may cause a child to not trust you (not

good), and not

trust food, and then down right refuse to eat for fear that something

may be

slipped in. What has worked THE VERY BEST! for some parents is this:

when you

give a child something yucky, just tell him it is going to taste

yucky! Say

yucky several times while he's taking it. If it is something he likes

or doesn't

mind you can say yummy! It's so subtle he may like the fact that he

can tell

the difference. No matter what, he needs to know he needs to takes

it. Letting

him choose when to open his mouth has helped as well!