Advice to get young PANS to take supplements?

[mamaluvsyou]

We see Dr. B in NY. He recommends lots of supplements, I am on board with strengthening his immune system. However, I am at a total loss for how to get him to take all the supplements. He's a picky eater anyways. He is dairy free, and right now, this is his first PANDAS episode he is not eating well. Sneaking it into food isn't working well, he will just say, this tastes bad! How do you get these great immune boosters and inflammation reducers into the kids. He is only 4.5 years old. Thanks for your advice!

Also would love advice on how to get started on GF or Yeast Free diet….feeling overwhelmed!!

[pr40]

one word: apple sauce.

dd never had any problems taking pills but ds does. he is 7 now and he still asks for apple sauce.

take a spoon of no sugar added apple sauce and you can put the pill either under the sauce or on the sauce. Kid's head should be either chin up or chin up and to the side, that movement opens the throat. we never had any problem with swallowing.

[jan251]

These videos helped my ds finally learn how to swallow pills, especially video #2

http://research4kids.ucalgary.ca/pillswallowing/ This opened up a whole new world for us. He was unable to swallow pills for years; applesauce didn't help him, unfortunately. He had difficulty getting the pill to the back of his mouth and what helped was the "duck shake" shown in the video.

 

A friend had good results with the Oralflo cup, though it didn't help my ds.

 

Sometimes I crushed pills and mixed with a small amount of chocolate syrup and then loaded it into a syringe, followed by a serving of ice cream.

 

Many vitamins now come in chewable, gummy or powder form, so I always search for those first, reading reviews regarding taste, of course.

Edited March 27, 2015 by jan251

[jan251]

As for the picky eater on the GF, yeast-free diet, for us the yeast part is more difficult and ingredient labels can be tricky. (If you also need dairy-free, there is virtually no fake cheese that doesn't have yeast.)

 

I would take a gradual approach to finding products that meet the diet requirements (for example, I heard there are GF, yeast-free pretzels at our local natural food store but I didn't see them today).

 

Look to products that are normally GF and yeast-free (for example, many types of potato and tortilla chips; check labels carefully for yeast, as it can show up in strange places, like soup broth). Cook/bake whenever possible but line up something store-bought for times when cooking is impractical. I've been baking yeast-free biscuits for my yeast-free kiddo as his preferred substitute for bread besides tortillas, but now a different kiddo is going GF and should be yeast-free but the combination is brutal so we may allow yeast for awhile for him; I haven't yet tried to make GF/yeast-free biscuits.

 

School lunch is a hard one. Anyway, I feel your pain. Apparently some natural food stores sometimes have GF tasting sessions so that items can be sampled.

Edited March 27, 2015 by jan251

[bws1565]

We see Dr. B in NY. He recommends lots of supplements,

Who is Dr. B. and where is he located???