Vitamins are important but not always fun for kids.
As a supplement to nutritious eating, vitamins can help provide essential nutrients for growth and health when taken daily. Convincing children to make vitamin-taking a habit, or just getting them to take vitamins with reminders every day can be a challenge, especially for younger children. Help your kids get the hang of vitamin-taking and even value or look forward to it by helping the pills go down with incentives, treats and education.
Gummy and Chewy
Gummy, chewable or other "candy" vitamins not only give kids a yummy incentive to take their vitamins, they make the process easier for children who have trouble swallowing pills. Though decades-old classics like Flintstones™ brand vitamins are still on the market, you can buy vitamin candies in multiple forms, including gummies, hard candy and even gumballs. You can also cut out the sugar with sugar-free vitamin candies.
Crushing Tablets
If you have a preferred non-candy vitamin brand you want to give your kids, mix a powdered version of the pill with something to help it go down easy. For tablets, crush the pill to powder using a mortar and pestle. With gel capsules, open the capsule, pour out the powder and discard the gel cap. Mix the powder with something thick and sweet, like honey, jelly, maple syrup or cocoa drink mix and just enough milk to make a paste.
Vitamins with Dessert
Give children an incentive to take their vitamins by including them in the evening meal before it's time to eat dessert. Make it clear that dessert comes as a reward for taking their vitamins and that dessert, which is a treat rather than a health food, should be balanced with the healthy, fortifying effect of a multivitamin. In addition to providing motivation for taking vitamins, this approach helps maximize the effectiveness of the vitamin pills, which most sellers recommend taking while there's food in the stomach.
Explain the Benefits
If you can convince kids to take an interest in vitamins on their own, you'll not only have an easier time convincing them to do it every day, but you'll help them form their own sustainable vitamin and nutrition habits that are likely to stay with them into adulthood. Talk to to your children about why you think vitamins are important, including discussion of any information you receive from your doctor or that you might read in news stories or health-related publications. If age-appropriate, talk about certain diseases and conditions that are present in your family and how vitamins may help control these. When shopping, explain to your children why you choose a particular brand or type of vitamin over others and keep them involved in the process.
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