children's daily supplements

[candipooh]

I need to get my kids to start taking supplements. No lecture about diet please.

Do your children take daily supplements? What do you give them? What brand? Do you order on-line or go to a store? How old is your child?

I was thinking of a
mulit vit.
fish oil (how much do I give a 7,9 and 11 year old)
probiotics
iron (floradix)
magnesium (for the 11 year per therapist recommendation)
melatonin (for the 11 year per therapist recommendation)

Do I need to add in Vit. C or will the mulit have enough?

Thanks

[CCJWGM]

That is a big list. While that isn't a problem in and of itself there is some overlap in your list. Such as iron might be present in a multi-vitamin so giving iron would be at best redundant and at worst dangerous. Also, Magnesium might be present in your Calcium supplement or in the multi-vit depending.

We give Pharmax HLC Child probiotics as prescribed by a ND. I buy this at the ND.

We also give .5 mg (500mcg) Melatonin as prescribed. Any brand works really. I've seen 3 different brands on the local stire shelfs and have used all.

Fish oil I'm not sure on but could give plenty of advice on Cod Liver Oil

We use Animal Parade Multi-vites which has some iron and contains whole foods. If they are good or bad I don't know, it's what I can get my children to take. I've tried others and they simply won't take them.

We supplement with a chewable Calcium/Vit. D. I can't think of the brand right now but I find it in the natural foods section of our grocery store.

As far as Vit. C - check the amount in the multi-vit you pick. More Vit. C is better than less so you can use your discretion. I use elderberry for our vit. c.

[candipooh]

Originally Posted by beezer75

We also give .5 mg (500mcg) Melatonin as prescribed. Any brand works really. I've seen 3 different brands on the local stire shelfs and have used all.

Fish oil I'm not sure on but could give plenty of advice on Cod Liver Oil

Wow thank you so much for the info.

Tell me about cod liver oil? Is this to get the omegas? I am not even sure about fish oil, I just keep hearing that it is so important.

My oldest daughter has some special needs. The therapist said we could try magnesium to help her with her stress/anxiety issues. She said to check if she is getting enough you look at poo. Yes the lovely poo. If she is getting the runs it is too much. It should be soft but not runny. (TMI I know) So if she shows signs of getting too much I will just stick with the mulit.

With the iron I was just worried about the absorption. I know that most supplemental iron has a hard time being absorbed. The floridix, from my understanding, is herbal and better absorbed. Please correct me if I am wrong. I know there is some vit. that your body will just get rid of if you have more than you can use and some vit/minerals can be dangerous if you have too much. I wish there was a quick reference guide that won't take me two weeks to wade through.

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by candipooh

I need to get my kids to start taking supplements. No lecture about diet please.

Do your children take daily supplements? What do you give them? What brand? Do you order on-line or go to a store? How old is your child?

I was thinking of a
mulit vit. I use Perque Perkies chewables, they're available online ... for the kids that can swallow pills, I'd use Thorne brand Basic Nutrients, they have a few formulations and you'd just choose a dose less than the full adult dose probably, depending on your goals...
fish oil (how much do I give a 7,9 and 11 year old) we're using Jarrow DHA max, I am giving the two kids 250mg and 500mg of DHA... a good cod liver oil is a great choice but I've had a few troubles with that--just stuff specific to us
probiotics We do this with food, fermented veggies are a lot tastier than they sound and cheaper
iron (floradix)I wouldn't supplement iron unless you have specific reason to suspect iron is low, having excessive iron is problematic
magnesium (for the 11 year per therapist recommendation) for cost, we use Now brand magnesium citrate powder, I give DH Perque brand Mg plus guard, it's a magnesium glycinate, there are other brands of mag glycinate and some people respond better to them
melatonin (for the 11 year per therapist recommendation) We also use a lot of Thorne brand, it's available online, they have 1mg, 3mg and 5mg dosages

Do I need to add in Vit. C or will the mulit have enough?

Thanks

I give the kids extra vitamin C as well, I use Now brand sodium ascorbate, it's a salty-tasting powder, it's very helpful overall but specifically when they're sick.

In general, you can overdose with minerals a lot easier than you can with vitamins. You can still throw things out of whack with vitamins but the tolerance between an ok dose and a problematic dose with minerals is a lot narrower--the reason I'd be careful with iron.

[MountainMamaGC]

I like Now foods chewable multi for kids. I dont give to DD everyday. Just when she doesnt eat well.

I give her vit D, and Nordic Naturals DHA. She also gets flax oil in her yogurt I also stir a probiotics capsule in there.

We also do green smoothies.

[CCJWGM]

I would honestly suggest going to a nutritionist if you can afford it.

CLO will give you Omega-3's and is just all around good for you. If you buy the proper brand it also has extremely high levels of Vits A and D. I would suggest Green Pastures brand. The other brands have questionable purity (mercury) and do not have the Vit D. I put my CLO is smoothies to hide it. I've never had a problem with the children drinking them.

[candipooh]

Thanks all, I am taking notes.

I would honestly suggest going to a nutritionist if you can afford it.

That would be so great but alas it has been a hard year. Hubby was out of work for over a year. He starts a job this week but we don't know all the details yet. Even just buying supplements is gonna be hard.


Thanks for the info everyone.

[SilverMoon010]

My son is 2 1/2 and I have been giving him a multivitamin daily since he was 1 years old. I was giving him the Liquid Health Children's Multiple but recently got him an even better vitamin from Liquid Health that has more concentrated vitamins in it. It's called Liquid Health Children's Complete Multiple. All kinds of good vitamins in there. It's similar to the Children's Multiple but with more vitamins.

Also, in the winter, I plan to get him tested for his Vitamin D levels and plan to supplement with additional Vitamin D3 if needed.

[quantumleap]

We use Kindervital, which is the children's multi from the same company as Floradix. It's spendy though, especially as your kids get older/bigger and require larger doses. I used to buy the Om3 chewable capsules of fish oil for dd, but discovered that she actually *likes* plain old lemon flavoured cod liver oil. I have to gag and quickly chase it with juice, but she just gobbles it up. So, I would try your kids on ordinary clo. Carlson's and Nordic Naturals are also good brands. I wouldn't do the iron thing unless they're deficient, like a pp said. We use a few different brands of probiotics, cause apparently different companies often have slightly different strains and it's good to mix things up a bit. Aything that comes out of a fridge at a store that you trust is likely decent. I can't really speak to anything else on your list. We do occasionally supplement with vit c (fighting a cold, etc), but like a pp, mostly use elderberry for that. Sambu (again with the same Floradix/Kidervit company!) is a good brand. We also loved the Herbs For Kids elderberry, but can't get it where we live now.