Vitamins

[Charlotte Woody]

Any of you fabulous EBFers give your LO vitamins too?  So far I have not but we've been battling illness here for weeks and I'm beginning to get curious as to what else I can do.  I offer a wide variety of veggies but very few actually make it into my 17 mo stomach these days... Is there even such a thing as a whole foods multivitamin for toddlers??? Thanks for any input!

[Pat]

consider
Green smoothies? Just toss some frozen fruit, water and a handful of greens in a blender. You can add maple syrup or agave or honey for sweetener. We use Trader Joe's tropical blend frozen fruit. It has pineapple, mango and papaya. Plus, organic baby spinach from Costco. Easy peasy and delicious.

Bone broths? Just toss the chicken carcass in water and simmer for a day or two. Add to gravy, rice, pasta, sauces, soups, etc.

Green Juice? We bought a nearly-new juicer from a consignment store for $16. Retail $90. Easy to make whole, fresh juice which retains the enzymes, phytonutrients, and antioxidants, vitamins and minerals in food nutrient form, rather than synthetic.

Kefir? Toss kefir grains in milk or sugar water.

It is easy to puree veggies and add them to spaghetti sauce, meatballs, lasagna, smoothies, hummus, carrot cake, veggie loaf, veggie burgers, meatloaf, etc. Even a tablespoon added to other food, is more than three gummy-vits. And is bio-available whole food nutrients.


Pat

[Sarah W]

For myself, I have some kefir (in a smoothie) and FCLO every day. I also give 3.5 yr DS1 kefir smoothie every day and sometimes the FCLO in some OJ (1 oz). DS2 is 13 mos and I don't do too much supplementation with him yet - part of my reason to make sure I am taking good probiotics and vitamins so that as much as possible is available in my milk, but I think you should be able to get a 17mos old to drink/eat a few things. I've given DS2 Hyland's vit C tabs which are only 25mg of Vit C each, but at least he will eat them!

I did buy some kids chewable vitamins from vitacost... animal parade maybe? They are whole food, IIRC. DS1 doesn't like them though and DS2 doesn't have enough teeth for that sort of thing.

Homemade soups made with bone broth would also be great!

My chiro also recommends a tincture sort of thing called "Thymactive" which is ecchinacea and thymus, I think. I'll give the boys and myself drops of that, as needed, when illness seems to be coming on or we were in a place where we likely got exposed to some yuckies.

HTH

[Gina Grothoff]

I am late on this post my appologies- but know for the future and anyone else- whatever you take, many things, will then benefit your child. So you can take increased vitamins- etc. Watch for items that can decrease milk supply( c.ertain herbs)

[Charlotte Woody]

Yep. Hence the incredible guilt I've been carrying around that I haven't been doing enough... Sigh. Mommy guilt, mommy guilt always and no matter what!