Down the Hatch: Getting Supplements into Toddlers

Lately I’ve seen several questions on getting supplements and medicines into kids.  So I thought I’d share a few tips that work for us. I find that depending on the supplement, I may have to experiment with different ways to get it in him.

For some capsules like enzymes, L-Glutamine and S. Boulardii I open the capsule and mix it with 100% grape juice or V8 Fusion Blueberry/Pomegranate. I find the grape or blueberry do a pretty good job of disguising the flavor of the supplements. (I can’t let him see me do this though, or he’ll refuse it, and it has to be shaken good so that is mixed in and he can’t see white specks floating in it!)

With digestive enzymes, sometimes I sprinkle it onto his food and mix it in after it has cooled.

For a supplement that has a strong smell kind of like cumin type. It is a capsule as well, so I open it and mix it with a couple spoonfuls of salsa or pizza sauce. Some days this works better than others and I tried mixing another supplement in with this once and that ruined it for awhile and he refused it completely for a few weeks.

Cod Liver Oil - I use an oral syringe like the ones that come in infant ibuprofen. Nordic Naturals comes in different flavors. Jordan does great with strawberry, but my older son does much better with lemon. (Fortunately he does great with this. I try to protect this and only give him things he is okay with this way so he doesn’t start refusing it.) 

Hemp protein I mix into blueberry coconut milk smoothies that I make him.

Probiotic powder will mix into about anything and he’ll accept it, and the chewable tablet form he LOVES. He asks for those like they are candy and thinks it’s a treat whenever he gets one! Same thing with his chewable multivitamin. Some things I dissolve in the juice and then freeze into popsicles for variety.

So those are my ideas, if you have any you wish to add, please do! We can always use more ideas.