Re: GF/CF Liquid Vitamins that dont have a flavor (long)

[Guest guest]

> My 5 year old will NOT take ANY kind of Vitamin. I have tried

several. The problem is she smells the drink and knows its in

there.

Brainchilds Nutritionals makes one that is good tasting to lots of

kids, or you can ask for a tasteless one.

http://www.brainchildnutritionals.com/Brainchild_Nux.html

Following is a file composed by parents on mixing suggestion for

supplements. It was compiled for enzymes specifically, but many of

the ideas can be used for anything. I edited out the parts that

obviously didn't apply.

.

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Mixing Suggestions for Enzyme Supplements

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by enzymesandautism:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/enzymesandautism

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-. 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

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.

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.

An idea for mixing supplements in a solid away from home:

First, melt a few chocolate chips (GFCF, or whatever your child can

tolerate), in small bowl in the microwave; be careful not to scald.

Dump in all supplements, and few evening primrose oil capsules. Mix,

and then transfer to waxed paper and freeze. It will freeze in 2

minutes. Holden calls it his chocolate cookie. No more battles and

there is much less waste. Devin Houston says you can make up to 2

weeks in advance without loosing activity. Since we're going on

vacation soon, I can make a big batch to travel, and not have to pack

a suitcase of supplements.

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. "

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!