How to give vitamins

[mrsmilkymoo]

DD has just turned a year old, and up until this point I had been giving her vitamins twice a day with a syringe (WellBaby, I think they are called). Anyway, as she's now 12 months, I bought the next stage up in vitamins, but she now needs 5ml once a day, which seems huge compared to the tiny amount she was getting. The instructions say that for 1-3 year olds, the vitamin should be mixed in their usual milk or juice and that only 3+ can take them straight from the spoon.

However, DD still breastfeeds, and only drinks a little water. Any ideas how I can get the vitamins into her? If I put them in her cup of water she'd waste most of them (and if I used less water, she'd find it hard to drink as it's harder to get the water out of the bottom of her cup).

There really is no need for a healthy child to have added vitamins, everything they need should be able to come from diet by this stage so I really would not worry about it too much.

Can you mix with Yoghurt and then feed after you've given it to her?

I'm not sure that's true RainbowUnicorn? My HV said I still needed to be giving DS (16 months) vitamins for Vit D, since he doesn't get any formula.

I don't have any advice really, but I'll be checking the instructions on my vits, as I'm still giving the WellBaby (orange flavour) ones (with a spoon). I hope it's ok to still give him, he reminds me every night by pointing at the bottle and saying "tasty".

rainbow even vitamin d? We live in Scotland and I take vitamin d myself, as I understand it's not possible to get enough naturally. I am also concerned about iron as she doesn't seem to like eating meat.

pocket she's not a huge fan of yoghurt but hummus on the other hand...could try that!

seaweed I'm wondering if there is actually no harm in giving them by spoon but maybe the manufacturers thought it might be tricky with a younger child?

I've been giving DD (12 months) the well baby vitamins since she was 6 months as she too doesn't drink formula and I noticed that the instructions had changed on the bottle! It used to be fine to give them the vitamins "neat" on a spoon so I figure it'll be ok to keep doing so...I doubt DD would drink them from a cup either! She loves them- points at the bottle saying more more!

Vitamins are recommended www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/vitamins-for-children.aspx It is practically impossible to get enough vitamin D from sunlight all year round in the UK and a 'healthy' diet won't give sufficient vitamin D. Low vitamin D is being linked to more and more conditions and it's very hard to have too much.

What brand are you using? I use well baby www.vitabiotics.com/wellbaby/liquid/ which is taken from syringe or spoon until age 5 so no need to faff about with mixing in food.

Oops sorry skim read and didn't see that it's wellbaby. Weird they've changed instructions.

It's probably that they are better absorbed if "diluted" in the stomach. I can't see it makes much difference if that is by giving a spoonful and immediately feeding, or by adding the vitamins to the feed first. I do a similar thing with any dissolvable tablets (which I hate taking) - dissolve in the smallest possible amount of water so can take in a couple of sips, then immediately drink a glass of plain (much more palatable) water!

Ah apologies the advice has changed since my youngest was a baby. In that case I would try mixing it with yogurt or fromage frais this was the only way I could get mine to take medicine when he was little. I just made sure it was something I knew he would like so that it all got eaten.

Another one here doing well kid off a spoon- I've never noticed that on the instructions either!

This is timely :) I got DS his first vitamins as he's going on cows milk next week and was think he rarely finishes a bottle so how would I make sure he got them, and that it would be much easier to give with a spoon!