So Much for the Reminder
Mornings with 7 and 6 year old daughters are a bit rough. I get up, take my thyroid medicine first thing and get the kids’ vitamins set out at the same time. Then I work on getting their breakfast ready as well as their lunches while they are supposed to be getting ready for school. Note that I said SUPPOSED to be. Ever since DH recommended I stop micro-managing them until they were ready, it has been better. Mainly because my micro-managing technique was non-stop nagging “Did you make your bed? Did you brush your teeth? GO… GET… DRESSED!”
As they rush out the door to catch their bus, I often ask (knowing perfectly well what the answer is) “Did you take your vitamin yet?” They rush back in, grab their vitamins, complain, grab a quick drink of water to wash it down then rush back out to the bus stop.
Which makes no sense to me at all because every kid is supposed to love Flintstones Vitamins, right? We used to purchase a gummy variety of vitamin at Sam’s Club but they stopped carrying it. When we switched to Flintstones, I didn’t think twice about whether they would take them or not because they were Flintstones Vitamins. Unfortunately, they hate them and getting them to take their vitamins is like pulling teeth. And when they visit the grandparents for an overnight stay, somehow they always manage to forget to take their vitamins.
We had a chance to test out SmartyPants Gummy Vitamins and the first thing that caught me by surprise was that the daily dosage is FOUR vitamins. That’s right, four. While I thought that might be an issue for getting the kids to actually take them, I was wrong. Not only did they not MIND taking four, but they loved it. I split the dosage into two. We took half (2 of them) before school and the other half (2 more) in the evening. Part of the reason for splitting it was that the kids wanted to take them the minute they got up and I didn’t want them to ruin their breakfast with four gumdrop sized vitamins. If I happened to forget to pull them out (either in the morning or in the afternoon), I had no shortage of reminders that “We need to take our vitamins to stay healthy, Mom.”
Now, what did we like about them? Well, I LOVED that the kids took them without complaint. I enjoyed (mostly) the reminders that they needed to and wanted to take their vitamins. I love the fact that they contain fish oils but don’t smell or taste funky. (Yes, I tried one.) The kids love the flavor but also love the fact they get FOUR vitamins each day.
What I don’t like is that they are only available online and they’re pretty pricey (about $18 for a 30 day supply per child for their best package) compared to other vitamins. However, there are some apple-to-oranges comparisons such as traditional children’s vitamins don’t contain fish oil and these do. Plus, I’ve never experienced the joy of having my children ask to take their vitamins until we had SmartyPants Gummy Vitamins.
To make the price a little more tolerable and to encourage SahmReviews readers to test it out, they’ve provided a discount code just for my readers. At checkout, type in SPsahmreviews (case sensitive) to get a 35% discount on your order!
Will we buy these again? Originally, I would have said no because the price is such a deal breaker. However, in the short time since we ran out, I’ve gone back to needing to remind the kids to take their vitamins. We’re back to the daily battle of telling them the importance of taking vitamins. Might be worth paying a little more not just for the fish-oil benefits but also for the mental benefits that DH and I would get!
As for the reminders I used to get… since we’re back to finishing up our Flintstones and Equate bottles, getting reminders from the kids is a thing of the past. Of course, if we make SmartyPants Gummy Vitamins part of our routine again, I’m certain the reminders will return along with them.
For more information on SmartyPants Gummy Vitamins, visit their website or blog, “like” them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
