Tips for Giving Kids Vitamins

Once your doctor has told you that you need to give your child a daily multi-vitamin the next challenge becomes getting your child to actually take the multi-vitamin everyday. Ideally you want to make it a habit for the child to take a vitamin every day so that he or she will always remember even if you forget. Also, it’s a good habit to have. So here are some tips that you can use to get your child in the habit of taking a multi-vitamin everyday:

Give the vitamin at the same time everyday – It doesn’t matter if it’s first thing in the morning, after dinner, or just before bedtime. Make sure that you consistently give your child a vitamin at the same time everyday. Eventually getting that vitamin will be part of the child’s routine, like washing their face or brushing their teeth.

Keep the vitamins in one spot – This can get tricky because you should keep the vitamins in a spot where the child can’t easily get them so that the child doesn’t eat more than one vitamin a day but you also should set up a routine by keeping them in a familiar spot. As the child gets older the child can start to get his or her own vitamin from that one particular spot everyday.

Use a daily medication holder – A fun way to remind kids to take their vitamin everyday is to put one vitamin in each slot of a daily medication holder. The child may not be able to read the days of the week on the holder but will know to open the compartment and take one vitamin each day. You can buy these at any drug store.

For small children crush up a vitamin tablet and put it in some juice or use a liquid vitamin because a pill might be too hard or too scary for them to swallow. If you are going to use liquid vitamins don’t keep them in the refrigerator for more than a week. Buy a new bottle each week because they don’t keep very well.

Use chewable vitamins and make them seem like a treat. Buy chewable vitamins in fun shapes and colors, or ones that have great flavors, or ones that are shaped like lollipops. Kids love treats, and they will love taking vitamins if they think the vitamins are treats.

Just a word of caution though – if you use this approach make sure you put the vitamins out of reach after you give them so the kids aren’t tempted to eat more than one. When giving your child a vitamin tablet that seems very large or if the child doesn’t want to swallow the tablet and you can’t crush it up try giving the tablet in a teaspoon of honey. The sweet taste and gooey texture will make it easier for the child to swallow and less scary.

Giving kids vitamins takes some practice. Every child is different so you might have to experiment to find out which method of giving vitamins works the best in your household. The most important thing to remember is to start a routine and get the kids in the habit of taking that vitamin everyday. That’s a habit that they could take with them through their whole life and it could help them stay healthy and strong throughout their lives.

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