As you already know, I am a big fan of acquiring proper nutrition by eating a plant-based clean diet filled with lots of fruits, veggies, healthy fats, gluten-free whole grains and lean meat. However, the unfortunate state of our land, sea and air has made it very difficult to (safely) acquire necessary nutrition from food alone. Couple that with a toddler’s finicky eating habits along with a strong desire to eat bread, muffins, bananas and nut butters all day long and my little guy could easily be left with a nutritional deficit.
Now, don’t get me wrong, M is an amazing eater. He loves most fruits and vegetables and will usually try just about anything I put in front of him. Plus, if you indulge him in some entertaining literature (aka The Bearenstain Bears, Dr. Seuss or Little Critter) during dinnertime he will devour just about anything.
With the guidance of our pediatrician, chiropractor and my own research I started M on a few supplements to round out his already healthy diet. I get a lot of questions about the “pills” that I give M and thought that I would share with you what works for us.
Since we started supplementing M’s diet and omitting all gluten and most dairy we have seen a marketed improvement in his elimination. As a young toddler, M would oftentimes get bouts of toddler diarrhea, that I feel was inhibiting his ability to confidently potty train. Since we made this change in his diet he has been symptom-free and is now going potty on his potty chair like a champ.
Please note that I am not a doctor, I am simply a well-informed Mom. The following are products that we actually use and like. I was not compensated in any way for this post and used my own money to purchase these products. This is not meant to be a replacement for medical advice. Please check with your pediatrician before adding any supplements and/or vitamins to your child’s diet.
Every day M takes the following dairy-free and gluten-free supplements, which we purchase on Amazon,
- Garden of Life Vitamin Code Children’s Multi Vitamin
– 1 chewable bear per day
- Nordic Naturals Children’s DHA
– 3 chewable balls per day for a total 189 mg of DHA
- Jarrow Formulas Yum-Yum Dophilus probiotic
– 3 chewable pills per day for a total of 1.5 Billion CFU
- Natural Factors Children’s Vitamin D3
– 2 chewable pills per day for a total of 800 IU (he gets an additional 200 IU in his Multi Vitamin)
This might look like a long list of supplements and vitamins resulting in a mountain of pills… and it is. We used to get out every pill every morning during breakfast, which was cumbersome and oftentimes I would simply skip giving M (or myself) some of the supplements out of laziness. Then I developed a better system. Once a week I sit down with our basket of vitamins and supplements and three weekly pill boxes, one for each of us, and I put all of the supplements into our boxes. The pill boxes then go into the fridge. Each morning while making breakfast, Allan takes out the boxes and sets them on the table to be taken after breakfast. This is a serious time saver, as the weekly sorting only takes me a couple moments longer than the daily sorting.
Please note that this post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting the blog, as I receive a very small percentage of sales. You can always google the supplements on your own if you would like to opt-out.
vitamin d for babies Very valuable idea