Vitamin - Kansas City,MO

Each of my kids has different needs. Our 9 year old was frequently complaint of belly aches, so I put her on a probiotic like I take and she thinks it helps. http://www.megafood.com/childrens-health/kids-n-us-megaflora
Our 8 year old was recently found to be iron deficient, so he takes a gummy vitamin with extra iron.
Our 4 and 7 year olds take tummies with omega 3.
If you can't get her to eat enough whole foods I would put her on a whole food vitamin. But, you should always ask her doctor.

I wouldn't give any kind of vitamin pill - try this: put a vitamin in a dish of vinegar and wait 20 minutes. What's left? That's what is going to pass out of your child's intestines without being absorbed - if the stomach acid doesn't dissolve it, you're wasting your money. The gummies are much worse - most of those sit in vinegar for 45 minutes or more.

Flintstones and every other vitamin you can find in a grocery or health food store, even if it's in chewable form, has a warning label on it: "keep out of reach of children"! So why would you give it to your kids?

I disagree that you should pick out "extra C" or things like that - most of us are not qualified to mix and match vitamins, but we play "kitchen chemist" nonetheless. Every nutrient, vitamin, mineral, etc. works in conjunction with many other nutrients - so isolating a specific vitamin or just a handful doesn't work. That's the biggest marketing ploy out there - "Vitamin Water" (with different varieties that feature different vitamins) or different combinations of vitamins for you to choose among. It just creates a million products and increase sales, with no clinical studies to show results.

I think the only way to go - and I've seen so many amazing health results with kids who have switched - is to a comprehensive powder supplement with ALL of the vitamins, minerals, trace elements, phytonutrients and also DHA for brain development. I use something that's clinically proven and developed by the lead scientific officer in the development of infant formulas. Most of the junk available in the vitamin aisle is not made in the US and does not have much scrutiny over it. I use vanilla or chocolate flavors and it really makes up all the missing nutrients, not only from picky eaters, but from our deficient food supplies. The AMA recommended over 10 years ago that EVERYONE needs to supplement with a comprehensive supplement, preferably in liquid form (and the powder that you mix in water or milk has greater potency than pre-mixed things that either break down or have emulsifiers in them). I look for a government patent, clinical studies, and a guarantee.

Happy to give you more info if you're interested.

I use a whole-food supplement called Juice Plus. It comes in gummies for kids. You have to buy it from a distributor. Another good whole-food vitamin that we've used is Catalyn from Standard Process, which is chewable. I get that from my chiropractor. I also give them fish oil, Nordic Naturals Pro-DHA in strawberry. They can chew on the capsules. Back when I used to get vitamins at a regular store, we used the Gummy Vites brand, which taste like Gummy Bears. I'm not convinced that they really had any nutritional value, but my kids liked them. We still use that brand for echinacea in the winter. If you have a Whole Foods near you I would check out their selection - a lot of the commercial ones (Flintstones, etc.) have sweeteners, corn syrup, soy, artificial colors and other junk in them and the current thinking is that vitamins derived from whole foods are better absorbed than synthetic vitamins made in a lab.

My boys love Nordic Berries from Nordic Naturals. I have to agree with them- they taste really good!

I used to give Flinstones until they were introduced to gummy's. Now we give Lit'l Critters Gummy Vites you can find at Target. I used to get their probiotic too but Target stopped carrying it.

My kids like Flintstones vitamins. I tried them on gummies but they don't like them, so we have stuck with Flintstones. They have different varieties, such as "for picky eaters" or "extra vitamin C".

I give my girls Koala Pals with Oligo. Because of the Oligo, the vitamins have an extremely high absorption rate. My children rarely get ill, a sore throat occasionally. No flu, no flu shot, no constant colds that are so common in the midwest this time of year.

For the most part, their immune systems are strong. They don't drink milk as often as I'd like them too so I know they're getting their calcium thru this supplement.

Let me know if you need more details. My girls are 11 and 6 and this is the only multi vitamin they take.