Suggestions
For Giving Supplements to ASD Children
A
digest from online Autism Discussion groups, and parents struggle with
supplementing their children. It includes hiding supplements in foods, and
suggestions for teaching children to swallow capsules and tablets.
I have left the posts in their original form as much as possible. Some
make me laugh! Be rest assured that you are not the only ones that have had
problems with a child that refuses to take a supplement/s. Some parents have
become very inventive in getting supplements past a child’s throat. Most of
the time the best advice often comes from other parents rather than from medical
professionals.
“Cut
off the end of a syringe and put in some applesauce or other somewhat preferred
food and then your pill. Just shoot it in the back of their mouth. The first few
times my son managed to push the pill out. But it didn't take long and now it
works like a charm.”
“I
put any tablet form pills in enough water to cover them, after a couple of hours
I add any powdered form vitamins etc. mix with a eyedropper and add natural
honey to double the amount of mixture .. and give it to my son 3 times a day.”
“We’ve
had good luck using whole fruit sorbet to mix supplements in. The cold helps it
go down faster and masks some of the flavour.”
“Try
grape juice. It has a really strong flavour. I even freeze it and let my son eat
it as an ice. This is very appealing. You can try half and add more.”
“If
your son drinks tea, or herbal tea, you can try to dissolve some supplements in
it. I prepare herbal tea (berry) for my son and dissolve there taurine, glycine,
l-glutamine, probiotics, super NuThera, sublingual B12,TMG etc.etc. And sometimes even zinc from Kirkman. He
eats other stuff, which I can’t dissolve, in capsules, which I put inside
pieces of fruit (banana, pear). You can try to introduce rice making it enough
salty or enough sweet for your son to like it.”
“Try
the sweet sticky rice that should be available at any oriental food market. It
tastes lots better than the American Uncle Ben variety. And since it's sticky,
you can roll it into small balls and hide the supplements inside.”
“If
you're desperate, maple syrup works pretty good, too.”
“I
crush the pellets with a pill crusher and put it between the peanut butter and
the jelly sandwich. He never knows its there. I do that with a lot of
supplements, great for adding some vitamin C at school lunch.”
“We
were able to get meds into a teen with ASD by hiding them in nut butter on gf
rice crackers. With the combination of the thick stickiness of the nut butter
and the crunchiness of the crackers he couldn't tell they were in there.”
“A
good trick is to mix the herbs 1:1 with maple syrup to get it down.”
“We
mix ours in Dana's famous peanut butter and honey, which will mask just about
anything.”
“We
are getting through it a little better since I decided to bribe with a
marshmallow... if the vitamins are taken without fuss or spitting she gets a
marshmallow and we seem to be getting through them a little quicker everyday!”
“Add supplements to rice
milk as a drink - mixed with a little soy yoghurt - dissolve in weak pear
juice then draw up juice with small syringe and squirt into mouth (give a
reward after) ...after a while most of the kids seem to accept it as part of
life.”
'I mix most of his supps with a couple of teaspoons of Goulburn
Valley apple & strawberry, and it is thick enough to mix into a thick mass
that he will swallow. He is so used to unusually tasting mixtures now that
he accepts whatever is in it most of the time. I know it is not the perfect
thing to give to him, (it has no added sugar, but it is still fruit and natural
sugar and it is not organic, but it works!!). It even seems to hide the
oils pretty well."
“I
also don’t like the force method [violation] although we do need to find the
balance between our force and our kids utter refusal. Between each sip of supp
give a sip of water of pear juice to get rid of the flavour of the supp as it
remains on the palate it reminds the child to refuse the next sip. Our Pfeiffer
supp take a good 20 min to get down her throat each morn as she closes her mouth
between sips. This is where we find our balance of force and her refusal. She
must take them but I have resigned to it taking a long time. From morning
probiotics to her last supp b4 school it is a 2hr on/off hassle, but what can we
do."
“Have
you tried positive reinforcements and rewards for taking supps?
"Also,
do you have a visual schedule of what happens in the morning, so that the
taking supps is only one small picture in a whole series of things that happen,
it is not the whole focus and fear of the morning. The thing that happens
after the supps should then be something delightful, whatever that is for each
child, eg, a favourite book or video."
"The other thing
we use is a simple chart that has two squares on, first with number 1 under and
second with number 2. We can put any picture in the squares and basically
we say "first this" pointing to the square number 1 with the least
favoured thing in, then we say "then this", pointing to the
second picture with something highly desirable in. You must be firm and
mean what you say and not give in to picture number 2 without them completing
number 1 regardless, even if they have to go without sups for a morning.
Then eventually they will realise you mean business and will awkwardly take the
supps knowing that number 2 picture is promised. After a while it just becomes
part of their life and you can remove the reward. Actually as they mature
somehow they realise that they feel better by having the supps. Our
problem now is that she refuses to have the supps in capsule form as she has had
them emptied into her rice milk or juice for so long. She only recognises
it if it tastes weird.”
“The morning 'vitamins' I
give her first thing, when she finishes she can have breakfast and we will play.
Nighttime 'vitamins' come after dinner and before ice cream or ice block or
whatever else she desires. She sometimes complains and I don’t make a fuss,
just tell her they are there when she is ready - sometimes I help her get
through them quickly (feed her...). A couple of times she ended up not eating
breakfast till around 10am but she realised pretty quickly that I would not
budge! She always gives in - makes faces and complains - but knows they are good
for her.”
“Have
you tried the pureed baby food? I tried all the ways (tasting them myself) and
this seemed to disguise it best - 2 tbl of fruit (pear seems best) - it takes
about 6 to 8 teaspoons before she finishes it. You are right the mornings are
worse but that is when I add the Stevia. We usually don’t need the Stevia in
the night ones.”
“After
much thought, sleepless nights and discussion (with my husband and friends) I
realised the only way for A to take these supplements was to be honest with her
and not try to conceal anything (as I have done unsuccessfully). My husband and
I were going to collaborate tomorrow morning when he is home and try together.
My GP friend advised me on how to do this, just hold her down and with a syringe
press it to the side of her cheek. BUT, I thought I would try on
my own and I DID IT. Just 10mins ago she was watching telly with her sister and
I told her she had to take her medicine. I must say, I have been preparing her
for a while now so it was no shock it was going to happen. I had the syringe in
one hand and her
juice in the other. I told her she could take this then have her juice. Of
course, there was going to be a fight. After a couple of goes of asking her I
gently took hold of her (whilst reassuring her it was going to be ok) and put
the syringe in her mouth. I then quickly said 'here Angelica, have your juice
now'. She drank and was OK. I then praised and praised and praised her told her
what a wonderful job she did in taking her medicine. I then gave a red lollie
pop – gfcf organic one of course. So there's my story guys - lets hope I have
enough strength to keep going.”
“Honestly
I think half the time it is more traumatic for us than the kids. My son is such
a little trooper now. I hate to say this but I used to have to pin him to the
ground and straddle him to get supps into him now he just opens his mouth and
gets it over with. Much tougher than his mum! Hang in there, it gets easier.”
“Another
idea is to use a medicine syringe and do fruit shakes with small doses of
vitamins in them, do this about 3 to 4 times a day in order to get in enough
vitamins.”
“Lately,
I've discovered that I can take a little frozen juice concentrate and mix it
with the powders and spoon-feed it to him like a sorbet - he loves it!”
“I divide my supps into 3
categories:
Those
that need to be taken 2 or 3 times a day and have little or no taste - they get
put into Luke's milk. Eg enzymes, liver herbs, taurine and calcium. Those that
are only once a day and don’t taste too bad. They all get mixed together with
2 tspns of pear puree and Luke has to eat these
before he gets out of bed. I feed him and it takes 7 spoonfuls to eat them all
(we count the spoonfuls). eg super nu thera, glycine, vit c, cod liver oil,
olive leaf extract, coQ10, magnesium, etc.
He is used to this routine now.
Those
that taste sooo disgusting that there is no way to disguise them or get him to
eat them - eg his primer and extra zinc picolinate. This gets mixed with just 1
ml of warm water and 1 drop
of golden syrup and put in a syringe. I hold him and squirt it into his mouth.
He doesn't like it but it is all over in a couple of seconds and because it is a
routine he is used to it.
We
take the tough love approach that he really needs these if he is going to
recover and so we find ways to get them in no matter how hard it is. And yes - I
taste every new supplement myself to see what category to put it in. I also add
new ones very slowly so that
the taste doesn't change too much and he gets used to the new taste over a few
days.
Also
I found very early on that it was best to never try to hide them in normal meals
- this can lead to them getting suspicious of all food and not eating.”
“I just wanted to share a
tip in regards to giving Eye Q fish oil. Our 6yo daughter won’t take
capsules at this stage, but we have managed to get her to take them whole in
pear puree. We soften them first by soaking in water for 20-30 minutes
prior to giving and so far seems to be working. “
“All
other supps just go in pear puree and if they are really gross I add 1 drop of
Stevia. She doesn’t like them much but we used a treat as bribery early on and
after a few weeks faded it out - you could use a marshmallow (white only) or a
little mini cupcake (we use berry almond cakes made with honey). If you’re
consistent and firm - after a couple of weeks they figure out its easer just to
take it and get it over with than protest.”
For
additional suggestions, including suggestions on how to teach children to
swallow capsules and tablets, contact All
Natural Advantage.
For
advice or to book a consultation for your child call (03) 8802 7687 or email
me.
| 
