Does Your Child Need to Take Vitamins?
Healthy children should be able to get the recommended daily amount of all of the vitamins and minerals from their diet. But not all children eat “a normal, well-balanced diet.” So if you think your child may need a vitamin supplement, talk to your doctor first, especially if your child:
- is a very picky eater and may be missing out on one or more food groups such as vegetables or meat
- doesn’t drink enough milk or eat other dairy products
- drinks too much milk and not enough other foods
- consumes a vegan diet
- consumes a lot of junk food
- is on a restricted diet due to multiple food allergies or a medical condition
If you’ve got the green light from your doctor, let’s have a look at the different ways you can get your kids to eat their vitamins.
1. Make It A Routine
Kids absolutely love predictability so routines and schedules are definitely the first thing you should try out. Having predictable routines is important as they influence your child’s emotional, cognitive and social development. Start a new routine by telling your kids that they will start eating vitamins after their dinner every day. It takes an average adult about two months to get used to a routine so be sure to be patient with your kids when establishing the routine.
You can set up an alarm on your phone to help remind yourself or make reminder posters with your child. Even though routines can be boring, it’s important to find ways to make the experience fun for your kids too!
2. Make It Fun
Rewards are usually what parents use to help their children to do what they’re supposed to. But if you can make the experience of eating the vitamin fun, the excitement of the fun becomes the reward itself! Some ideas that you can think of would be to let them watch their favourite show once they have taken their vitamins.
Another alternative is to buy flavored or chewable vitamins but you have to keep your kids away from them. Hiding them in a difficult to reach place will prevent them from taking more than the recommended amount. Remember: they can get an overdose of vitamins too!
Kids also love to see their favourite characters on products they own so you can consider buying branded vitamins to keep them entertained.
3. Take Vitamins with Them
Kids absolutely love to copy the things we do. They are learning to be grown ups so you can encourage them to take their vitamins by making sure you take your vitamins too!
As mentioned before, you can make this part of your routine, especially if your kids have older siblings, cousins or close friends. When kids get older, they tend to look to their peers and older siblings and relatives for advice so make sure you choose the right people to support your mission.
4. Teach Them About Vitamins!
Even though their bodies and little brains are developing, kids can actually understand things pretty well if we take the time to explain things to them. You can try to explain to your children why vitamins and minerals are important for them and that they help keep their little bodies healthy and growing!
Besides, no one likes to be sick right? Remind them of the times they got ill and how their body needs the vitamins to help fight off infection and bacteria. You could even show them a video of how the body gets rid of bacteria and how vitamins help make our bodies stronger.
Vitamins Are Important
At the end of the day, there are many ways to manage your child who doesn’t want to take their vitamins. The dangers of not getting enough nutrition are very real, especially for a young growing child. Try your best to get your kids to take the vitamins that they need to grow into healthy grown-ups! Making vitamins and nutrition an essential and fun part of your family’s daily routines will build habits that keep the entire family healthy for a lifetime.
