vitamin drops

Hi Ladies,
My girls have lowish iron & my dr recommended that I give them a vitamin supplement with iron. I bought it yesterday- it's Enfamil Poli-vi-sol with iron (or something like that). It tastes horrible! How should I get my girls to take it?
Thanks for your advice!

 

Hi Ladies,
My girls have lowish iron & my dr recommended that I give them a vitamin supplement with iron. I bought it yesterday- it's Enfamil Poli-vi-sol with iron (or something like that). It tastes horrible! How should I get my girls to take it?
Thanks for your advice!

 

We have been giving our girls the vitamins for about 8 weeks now. We give them both Enfamil Poly-Vi-Sol and my one DD with low iron also gets Enfamil Fer-In-Sol (which is iron). I have struggled with how to give these vitamins because they taste and smell horrible. The NICU advised that I put them in about .5 ounce of formula during their feedings and then give them the rest of their formula without. However, the pedi then told me that iron is not as well absorbed when taken with dairy. Ugh. So, I tried giving the vitamins about a half-hour to an hour after meal-time. This didn't work well for us because the girls spit out or gag on the vitamins (and I feel bad that they have to have that awful taste in their mouth until next time they eat). So, I've gone back to giving the Poly-Vi-Sol with their formula because I figure their going to lose most of the vitamins anyway if they spit up most of it. As I mentioned, we're also giving my one DD Enfamil Fer-In-Sol...this I do give to her on it's own between bottles...it doesn't seem to taste nearly as bad and she doesn't spit it out. I guess giving her the Fer-In-Sol without formula makes me feel a little better about having to give the Poly-Vi-Sol with formula...at least she's getting her iron separatley.

HTH.

 

We give tri vi sol and iron drops. One daughter has to have it put in expressed breast milk, the other can have it put directly in her mouth. I would just try and see how your babies react to them.

 

When I went to Target to buy another bottle of Poly-vi-sol I noticed that Target has a generic version of it. I bought it because it was cheaper and then noticed that it is fruit flavored. I haven't tasted it, but it spells much better than the Poly-vi-sol. You may want to give it a try.

 

My girls were on those drops for months. Luckily, they've outgrown them. But I have a great way for you to give it to them. It worked like a charm...for a while. And this is the way the neos and the nurses in the hospital showed us while the girls were there.

Take about 10 mls of breastmilk or formula and get it warming up in a syringe. Feed the baby first for about 5 mins--just until she has a decent amount of food in her belly. Then take a nipple--no bottle, just nipple--and with her sitting in front of you on your lap or in a seat, grab the nipple with one hand, squirt a little milk in it and get her sucking. While she's sucking keep squirting milk in and then shoot the vitamin in from a syringe. Make sure you add the vitamin while there's still milk left so that they taste milk at the end and not vitamin. This way they won't hardly taste the vitamin at all because they'll still be sucking vigorously since they're still hungry, and it won't upset they're tummies as much since they already have some food in it.

Now it is kinda tricky to hold a baby and maneuver 2 syringes and a nipple, but with practice it'll come. I could do both syringes in one hand and hold the nipple with the other if I had to, but if they suck well, they might be able to keep the nipple in place by themselves so that you can use one hand for each syringe.

Good luck!

 

That is the same I used for mine when their iron was low... I give it right to them out of the dropper, they had no problem taking it.

 

Thank you! I knew that you ladies could help!
Of course, I was at Target today & didn't even think of looking for vitamins.
Tomorrow, I'll try to give it to them again with your new techniques.
Thanks,

 

We give ours while they are in the bath. That way I can wash whatever comes out of their mouths right off because they do stink so bad and they stain too! At least ours do. Seriously after a few days of giving in to them in the bath they take them no problem...they used to gag bad!

 

I think the drops are horrible too! I tried about 2 weeks ago with one by putting it into her bottle of breast milk, but she clearly thought it was horrible by the expression on her face, and she spit some of it up all over the place. It is a horrible color and stains! So I kind of gave up for a while. Today, we tried again, I waited until they were both hungry, laid them down on their backs and used the dropper to squeeze it into their mouths. They still weren't crazy about it, but enough of it got into their mouths. I decided not to put it into their bottles because I think it makes their milk taste bad and I would rather they drink the milk than take the vitamin. They got their bottles after that.

My mother said they used to have tiny little tablets instead that quickly melted in our mouths, but I guess they don't have those anymore. Good luck, it is yucky stuff...

 

That is an awesome idea!
Thanks,

 

When my kids were really young we would put it in a nipple with formula... but since I nursed... that was hard and wasteful so I tried to give it to them in a nipple without anything and they took it... very lucky on my part. When I try to give it to them with the dropper... they don't seem to handle it as well. Good luck.

 

mine were taking those in nicu & until they went in for their 2 month wellness check (the pedi said i could stop)- the nurses in nicu said that with preemies, giving them the vitamins straight could cause them to stop breathing for a second because they taste/smell so bad, so they always put them in a nipple with some formula & then fed them a bottle. that's what i did when we got home- i put them in their bouncy seat, had a bottle ready to go, put the vitamins & a bit of formula in another nipple & put my finger over the hole until it went into their mouth. oh, and if you get it on clothing/bib, spray it really soon (like after the bottle) with dreft stain remover spray & then spray again right before washing- i never got a permanent stain.

 

my doctor suggested putting it in their bottles.....they don't take it now but did when they were first out of the NICU.