If your
child will not swallow capsules, you can open digestive enzymes that
come in capsules
and mix the contents in food or drink. Enzymes will keep longer
in a cold drink, up to about four hours. After that time, the
enzymes may have lost enough potency that you can consider adding
another dose.
If your child
has difficulty
adjusting to a supplement, consider that what you are mixing it with
may not be
well-tolerated rather than the supplement itself.
Drinks
Foods
Chocolate
Wafers and
Candies
Away From
Home
Learning
to
Swallow Capsules
Recipes
for Hiding Enzymes
- Soon to Come ( no-bake cookies, white chocolate, frosting, Enzyme
Gummies)
Drinks
Enzymes
gradually lose their activity level once mixed in liquid or food.
You can keep enzymes "good" longer by putting them in a cold drink, up
to about four hours. You can freeze the drink you mix them in for
use later.
Some drink ideas:
pear juice
lemonade (good for hiding cod liver oil)
Wyler's clear (dye-free) drink mix, comes in a pouch
like Kool-Aid. Or use Kool-Aid.
Keep Gerber
individual juice bottles in your car for mixing enzymes. Use a
straw to
minimize the taste of supplements. Only mix the enzymes with an
amount
you are confident the child will take.
Foods
(Foods may break down quickly when mixed with enzymes. Nut
butters and cooled chocolates are better choices for preserving enzymes
for later use. You can freeze enzymes mixed with nut butters,
chocolates or other foods for about two weeks.)
applesauce
jam
honey on a
cracker
or bread
baby food, such as peaches
spoonful of melted ice cream
fruit sorbet
peanutbutter,
cashew butter
maple syrup, pecan syrup
mixing syrups available in the pharmacy department, various flavors
yogurt
pudding
jelly, jam
frosting
brownies (another possibility for cod liver oil)
open a french fry, hot dog, or other food, scoop out
a hole and pour in the
enzyme
gumdrop candy - split open and hide the enzyme contents inside
Do not
bake with enzymes, baking temperatures are too high for
enzymes. Some other supplements may or may not be used in baking;
check
with the manufacturer.
Chocolate Wafers
or Candies
Make chocolate
wafers, being aware of any ingredient in the chocolate your
child might not tolerate. Some children cannot tolerate
artificial
vanilla, called "vanillin". Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips do
not have vanillin. Heat the chocolate just to the melting point,
pour
into wafer shapes on wax paper. Mix in enzymes and put in the
refrigerator or freezer to cool. Can be kept frozen up to two
weeks. Enzymes will not be damaged because chocolate has a low
melting
point. Use candy molds for fun and to differentiate between types
of
supplements. For example, frogs for one kind of enzyme, bears for
another. Then you can keep track of dosing the different enzymes
easier. Mixing enzymes in a dab of frosting and freezing is
another
option.
Away From Home
Taking with liquid:
If pre-mixing enzymes, they need to stay cold to keep them from losing
activity. While cold, enzymes should be fine for about four hours
before
significant loss of activity. Pre-mix with the liquid before you
leave
home and keep cold with in a lunchbox with a frozen blue ice. An
alternative is to buy a Rubbermaid
Blue Ice Sport Bottle with a frozen "Blue Ice" to keep the enzyme
mix cold. You can also remove the sport bottle and use a much
smaller
Gerber single serving size juice bottle to mix enzymes in, keeping it
cold in
the blue ice holder - like a mini-cooler.
Another
method is to take the liquid with you, but don't mix the enzymes until
it's
time for your child to eat. This way you don't have to keep
anything
cool. You can keep a few bottles of single serving Gerber juices
in the
car.
Gerber 4 oz.
individual-size juice containers make
great shakers. Dump
out some of the liquid, add enzymes and shake. Let sit a few
minutes to
help dissolve the clumps, then shake again. Save empty bottles to
re-use
with other liquids.
Drinking the enzyme mix with a straw helps minimize
the taste and keeps enzymes
off the skin around the mouth. Frequent contact with enzymes
around the
outside of the mouth can cause some irritation.
Taking with
food:
Chocolate wafers can be taken away from home if not in danger of
melting.
They are useful for sending in a lunchbox.
Learning to
Swallow Capsules
Helpful Links:
Teaching Pill Swallowing
http://www.dbpeds.org/media/2004Autu
mnSODBPNews.pdf
How to Get Kids to Take...Pills!
http://www.acor.org/ped-onc/treatment/Pills/pills.html
Primer & Video on Pill Swallowing
http://bayloraids.org/resources/
My
son
finally learned to swallow capsules a few weeks ago!
My
Mother-in-Law told him he could have a
little Sprite if he tried to swallow a capsule and instructed him that
the bubbles in the Sprite would help carry the capsule down. Hooray!
Here is
another method a mother told me about. Start small,
very small. First give the child a tiny round cake sprinkle to
swallow. Chances are it will dissolve on the tongue right away,
but this
assures the child of having success with "swallowing". Do this
several times, perhaps waiting till the next day to move to the next
step. When ready, move up to using the sprinkles that are longer
in
shape, but still quite small. Allow the child to become
successfull with
swallowing these, using only one sprinkle at a
time. Next, give the child
a cake sprinkle that is a little larger and in a shape - such as the
dinosaur
shapes. Finally, move on to the smallest size empty capsule
available at
pharmacies or health food stores. You can gradually increase the
size of
the capsule given, or empty a supplement out of a slightly larger
capsule you
already have, until the child has mastery and is ready for swallowing a
"real" capsule that is filled.
Recipes
for Hiding Enzymes
(Under Construction)
Chocolate
Wafers
White Chocolate Wafers
No-bake Cookies
Frosting