6 ways to include supplements into your kids’ diet

We know that children’s supplements can be a vital addition to your child’s diet to meet their nutritional needs. But we also know that getting your child to take a supplement can be a challenge! Rather like taking medicine, children can struggle with taking children’s supplements.

So how do you as a parent get around this?

How can you include supplements into your child’s diet without them noticing?

Or if that’s not possible, how can you make taking children’s supplements more fun?

Here are a few ideas that you might work for your family...

Instead of being a stressful chore, taking a children’s supplement can be turned into a fun exercise with a bit of creativity. Supplements give us essential vitamins and minerals that give our body the fuel it needs to be healthy and active. Why not try making supplement taking time a positive thing in your house? Build up the excitement around getting the super-fuel you need. If your children like superheroes, you could create a superhero who has to take a supplement every day and enjoys certain superpowers as a result, like bashing viruses and destroying bad bacteria.

Some children like to copy what mum and dad are doing. So making ‘taking our supplements’ a family thing can be really helpful. If everyone is taking a supplement at breakfast time, your child is more likely see it as a positive experience and won’t feel singled out.

Supplements aren’t sweets and they aren’t a ‘treat’. Be honest about how the supplements taste, but also be honest about why nutrients are so important. From an early age, children have the ability to understand the concept of something being good for us, even if it isn’t the best taste. Explaining that supplements help us to be healthy, just like medicine makes us feel better, helps to engage and encourage.

Younger children often respond well to being able to give a favourite teddy, doll or toy their supplements first before taking their own. This gives the child some control over the situation and also gives them time to process that they then need to swallow the supplement themselves. This can be a part of the ‘family takes supplements’ concept: first teddy, then child, then mummy. Statements such as “we all take our supplements to be healthy” could be very helpful to reinforce this and make it feel like more of a group effort. Perhaps don't try this with liquid supplements, or things could get a bit messy for teddy!

Older children who might not like taking children’s supplements can be motivated by a reward chart. Try making a chart and placing it on the fridge. Every day they take their supplements for good child nutrition, they get a sticker, building up to a small healthy reward at the end of the month. This is another way to make taking children’s supplements a positive activity, for which they can take responsibility and feel a sense of achievement.

If you are struggling with getting your child to take supplements, you may be able to disguise them in food or drink. This is of course dependent on the supplement, but many are in liquid form. Be sure to carefully read dosage instructions and suitability first. Many omega-3 and Vitamin D3 supplements are available as liquids that can be added to foods and stirred into items such as smoothies and yoghurts. It reminds me of being a child and my Mother hiding turnip in mashed potato in an effort to sneak more goodness onto my plate!

When it comes to Vegetology, we understand that children can find larger capsules and tablets difficult to swallow. That's why we've focused on small, chewable tablets and oral sprays when it comes to Vitamin D3, and liquid Omega-3 for Omega-3.

Vit-D3, our vegan Vitamin D3 supplement, is popular with adults and children. Most of us aren’t getting enough Vitamin D and this is an ideal way to top up our intake of this vital vitamin.

We have a Vit-D3 spray which is ideal for children and those who don’t like swallowing tablets. You can choose to either spray directly into your child’s mouth or you can spray it onto food to disguise taking the vitamin. The spray has been developed to retain all the Vitamin D3 goodness in this form, without degrading. The spray has no taste, making it easy to consume.

Alternatively, the Vit D3 tablets are natural sweet-tasting and can be chewed. They are small and easy to take so are a good way to get older children into the habit of taking supplements.

Omega-3 is a plant-based Omega-3 supplement that can benefit children and families from birth to throughout life, with Omega-3 DHA and EPA that help with growth and bodily functions. Omega-3 is available in liquid and soft capsule forms (the capsules are quite large: each capsule is 25mm by 8mm).

We understand that children will struggle to swallow a capsule that size, but we find that a lot of parents pierce the capsules and either give the oil inside to the child on a spoon or add it to food or juice to ensure they are getting the supplement. We followed with the launch of Omega-3 liquid, which has a light Orange Oil flavour added.

MultiVit is a multivitamin with a superfood complex included and is great for supplementing your family diet. MultiVit is not recommended to children under 11 due to the size of the tablets: they measure 19mm by 8mm. We are often asked whether you can grind the tablets into food to help give children the nutrition they need. It is possible to break the tablets in half if you do want to give the supplement to children.

Please don't grind up the MultiVit tablets, as the nutrients are carefully balanced and the tablet is structured for optimum delivery and absorption. Grinding up the tablet will lose this structure. Some of the nutrients also have a very bitter taste, which is released if the tablet coating is broken.

Encouraging your child to take a regular children’s supplement might be a gradual process. Just like us as adults, children need to understand the reason for supplements and how they are a positive benefit to their bodies. We hope our tips will help you to introduce supplements into your family’s nutrition with greater ease and also some fun!

Why not start with Vit-D3 spray and Our Omega-3 added to meal times?

For information on all of our products and to buy Vegetology supplements today, visit us here: