My dd is very small for her age and eats very little. I make her eat a few vegetables and some fruit every day and her doctor recommended 2-3 glasses of milk. I can usually only get her to drink 1 glass of milk (if she drank more, she wouldn't eat anything).
Anyway, I give her one Flintstone vitamin with iron every day (she's not a big meat eater) and her doctor recommended a Calcium and vitamin D wafer.
What supplements do you give yours?
Never gave my kids vitamins and they never drank milk (other than in cereal.) They were also small, and picky but VERY healthy.
As young adults they now eat a much more well rounded diet.
Why on earth would a doctor suggest 2 to 3 glasses of milk a day? Is he 100 years old? That's such dated advice, like recommending a cigarette to aid digestion LOL!
My kids are bigger but take the new gummy adult vitamins. They ALWAYS have taken them (meaning a multivitamin). My son (13) now doesn't like the taste but also has a hard time swallowing normal ones. I bought the kids star wars ones so I hope he will eat those. lol
I think maybe you can make her blended shakes with milk and fruit. Maybe that will be easier for her? Good luck.
How old is she? Has the Dr done a blood workup to find out what she needs?
I was fortunate that my daughter was a healthy eater and very active. At most, she'd take a daily multivitamin.
Now at 21, she takes a daily multivitamin, fish oil, calcium with D per her Dr recommendation. She drinks 1% milk.
You can incorporate healthy foods in your meal prep. Ex: I use carrots to sweeten my marinara sauce. No one would know it has crushed carrots in it unless I tell them.
Depending on your daughters age, I would watch her carefully but not allow eating habits became a battle. So many girls fall into the trap with food issues and then it's a long dangerous road ahead for them.
Provide healthy choices, encourage her to try new things but don't overdo food talk.
Good luck, I know it's worrisome to you.
sorry - I don't give vitamins. My kids get well-rounded meals. Our pediatrician said that they don't need them.
Why not talk with your pediatrician and find out if there is something medically wrong with her or if she NEEDS any supplements??
If she is a picky eater? Sorry you created that. Stop allowing her to be picky. Have her taste everything and be involved in the menu planning.
We were giving our boys vitamins and my 2nd oldest starting having his hair fall out. We took him to the doctor and they ran blood tests, he was getting too much vitamin A.
The doctor ran blood tests on all of us. The results were simple, we were all getting too much of different vitamins. We have stopped taking vitamins and my son isn't losing his hair anymore. I was able to drop some weight and my youngest settled down a little bit.
Take her to the doctor, get her blood checked and see what she needs.
Did her doctor do a blood test to determine if she needed more calcium and vitamin D? That would be the only way to determine if she even needs a supplement. Keep in mind that most over the counter vitamins are full of sugar and don't do very much, other then tasting like bad candy.
Also, my daughter doesn't eat much meat either, but eats lots of fruits and veggies (I give the dark greens in a smoothie) and is very healthy. I do my best to make sure she eats a variety of healthy foods and only give supplements if she is feeling tired or getting over being sick (vitamin C, echinacea, and zinc).
Most commercial vitamins don't have nearly enough in them to make much difference. They carry warning labels too, because they aren't balanced enough to be metabolized as food, so you can get way too much of a particular ingredient. They might make you feel better to give them, but they aren't doing much. Because they aren't absorbable, many pediatricians and most food scientists consider them to be "expensive urine" in that much of them are just eliminated. Fifty years ago we could get our full nutrition through our food - and there are still people who cling to that ("Eat healthy foods and you'll be fine") but even the american Medical Association disagrees with that. They came out with that finding over a dozen years ago. So depending on what a pediatrician has read and keeps up with, you'll get different opinions on whether to take them or not.
It's absolutely not solid science to say that a blood test will tell you what you are missing and then you just take that one vitamin or mineral to balance out. That's not the way cellular biology works, and it's not the way the cells absorb nutrients.
I would go much more toward a comprehensive formula with multiple ingredients (the healthy human cell needs about 72 vitamins, minerals, trace elements, phytonutrients, etc.) for proper functioning. If it's balanced, it is metabolized as food and there is no possibility of overdose as with any supplement that is required to have a warning label ("do not exceed recommended dosage" or "keep out of reach of children"). This is what we do with preemies, with kids who have Failure To Thrive syndrome, and kids like your daughter. We also do it with pregnant women who are nauseated/vomiting and absorbing very little, and with cancer patients who are ill from chemo and radiation. And many more. It's delicious anyway, and can also be added to other things like yogurt and smoothies.
I also did a lot of "hidden nutrition" with my son, who had issues with texture. You'd be amazed what you can do with a lot of easily available foods that kids don't think they like but which can easily be combined with others foods. My kid was eating tofu and broccoli in ways you would never imagine. I agree with you about the milk, by the way - it's filling her up and not giving her enough to make up for that.
BLENDER! Fruit smoothies, add veggies (won't even taste them especially if you add banana)! Go online for blender recipes. That's all I do. I even went to the dollar store and got this popsicle container and make popsicles. If you get a great blender (I have a vitamix) it can make hot nutritious soups kids like
MY kids have always taken a daily multi-vitamin We don't have a particular brand. Whatever is on sale. While my kids are fairly picky eaters they do eat enough of each food group to have a balanced diet, however, there are many times I know they aren't eating balanced meals for a variety of reasons, mostly a busy lifestyle and eating on the run. Because of how far north we live we also require vitamin d supplements.
The same is true for myself. I have also needed iron supplements most of my life and now also need calcium.
ETA: Gamma, wouldn't the fact that your child has such an unhealthy diet make giving supplements kind of important?
i think it's fine to give a flintstone. that's what my kids got, anyway. even with a healthy diet, kids don't always (or even often) get all they need from food, what with nutrition depletion in the soil and additives and so forth.
i'm sure not all vitamin supplements are created equally, but you can also make yourself crazy with supplements. i'm a little crazy that way myself. i have a basket full of 'em, but it gets overwhelming trying to stay on top of it all. and you can't expect kids to take handfuls of pills every day, can you?
i assume her doctor has a reason for suggesting the extras. sounds like a good plan to me.
khairete
S.
Flintstones Complete. Not the gummies, the chewable tablets. I like the grape ones best....um, I mean my kids do. lol
I believe in whole food, but I also know that food doesn't always give us what we need. So, I buy the whole food based vitamins. We use Rainbow Light gummies, Alive Gummies, or Vitamin World's Green Source. Yes, they are all expensive, but my daughter and I can't process synthetic B vitamins and it makes us both a terror to be around. These are what I took when I was pregnant also. Rainbow Light has a teen formula, as well as several others.
he's taken his Flintstone multi gummies for years. and there's no failure to thrive at our chateau... :-)!!! S
Flintstones chewables works fine for us.
We do Flintstones (or comparable).
When I was a preteen I was small. I was given Ensure to drink (chocolate was good). I didn't take a vitamin - it had calcium in it and everything I needed. So I just worked on a healthy diet and drank one a day (or two) to supplement. A dietician and my doctor recommended them. They did the trick.
I don't. And she's a picky eater too. She lives on mac and cheese, grill cheese, ramen noodles, and turkey and pepperoni sandwiches.
She occasionally drinks milk but not too often.
I think food is a hard thing to try and control for another person. They have likes and dislikes just like we do.
