Here's something I promised a while ago (a long while ago, I'm sure). I said I'd do a review of a few products that I've been using that I've found to be really helpful. Well, here's some of them.
I stumbled across Ella Ola on Facebook. The algorithm worked well this time and actually influenced me to check it out. When I saw, "unflavored vitamin powder" I was definitely intrigued, but honestly really dubious. I'd fallen for the trap of "unflavored" things MANY times before, only to find that they were far from what they advertised themselves to be. They also said that the powder would mix in with anything, so that really intrigued me as well because most powdered anything says, "absorbs easily into smoothies, yogurt and applesauce"....yeah, if I could get Alvah to eat anything mooshy and smooth like that, his diet would be a lot better than it is, I assure you. I always tell people, "Give me something I can hide on a Cheeto or dissolves in Coke with no flavor and we'll talk." That usually shuts down any conversation people start up on how to hide nutrition with me, unfortunately. Someone on the Facebook comments said that they dissolved their grandson's powder in WATER and that he couldn't detect it...that sold me to at least try it.
When I researched Ella Ola, I got my doctor team on board to check them out and see what they thought of the vitamin breakdowns before I slapped down a hefty amount of money every month on vitamin powder (the company doesn't really seem to have a "try it" pack...you have to subscribe to the service and then you can cancel the subscription if it doesn't work for you). Both Alvah's mental health doctor and his pediatrician were both really happy with what the vitamin powder had to offer, so I decided to try it.
I can't speak for the other vitamin powders as I have just used the teen unflavored vitamin powder, so keep that in mind when you are looking at them for yourselves. But, what follows is my honest review.
First, I'll cover the unflavored multivitamin powder. First thing to note with full honesty: No, it is indeed NOT flavorless. At least to me, but I've learned to have a really sensitive tongue to these things with Alvah. But, BUT (big BUT here) it is NEARLY flavorless. The flavor is VERY, VERY mild and barely there, so that made me optimistic that I could eventually get Alvah to drink it in his Coke (only thing he'll drink to those out there wondering). Next: The amount of powder in the packets is VERY small, so I doubt you'd be able to split this among multiple glasses of your child's favorite beverage, but if you were patient enough, I'm sure you could figure it out. I had to keep messing with the dilution of the vitamin powder so that my VERY sensitive kid would not detect the flavor. We make our own Coke with Coke syrup and making sparkling water in a Soda Stream, so I add the vitamin powder to the bottom of the Soda Stream bottle, mix it with a little warm water and shake it up really good, fill it the rest of the way with cold water, carbonate the water and finish making the Coke. If you are mixing this with a sparkling beverage without making your own, BE CAREFUL as it will fizz up and explode on you (ask me how I know) so be careful to mix it with a little bit of soda/sparkly stuff and then mix that in with your full glass. I take the bottle of diluted "vitamin Coke" (as well call it) and just give it to him as he needs a drink until the Coke is gone, wash out the bottle and go about our day.
Another thing to note, if your kid is really observant with visuals and drinks out of a regular cup (Alvah drinks from a straw cup, so not an issue for us), the vitamin powder does NOT completely incorporate into liquid, so you end up with little white floaties of vitamin floating in the liquid. Not a ton, but enough to be noticed, so keep that in mind if your child is sensitive to those types of things.
Now, if your kid does condiments on their food, or does yogurt or other soft, yet flavorful things? This powder would definitely mix in well and would be a breeze to get into a kid, I think.
We do the unflavored vitamin powder every other day, or the vitamins start to get to Alvah's stomach, but otherwise, it's become a part of our every day lives since I discovered it a while ago.
I've also had to add the iron powder they make into our routine as well. We found out that Alvah is low on iron when he went he got his blood drawn last month. I was going to add the iron to my subscription (pretty penny) to try out as iron supplements are awful to try and get into anyone, but was lucky in that my pediatrician had a ton of free samples of the products and gave me a bunch of the Ela Ola unflavored vitamin C with Iron to try.
Right, like ALL iron supplements, this stuff is NOT unflavored. Now, you can tell they tried hard to make it so and the iron flavor is mild. But, it is there. You can taste the iron in the powder and in liquid. I was going to try and split the powder to make the taste even milder, but it is a TEENY amount of powder (really TEENY!), so there is no splitting the dose in half to dilute it out to help (I tried). It is, however, way milder of an iron supplement than I've ever been able to find, and if your kiddo was less sensitive in the "detecting any flavor" department, you'd probably have way better luck than me. It is worth it to get the iron in him with such a mild flavored powder, though, so I've been making it work. I mix up the iron in the bottle of Coke like the unflavored multivitamin, but I will actually put like 1/2 of the amount of Coke in his cup that contains iron and dilute the iron even further with another bottle of regular strength Coke. Otherwise he'll find ways not to drink it. This way, however, does work, so I'm going with it.
In closing, I'd say that these vitamin powders have their drawbacks (mainly cost, honestly), but I would have KILLED to have something like these available to me when Alvah was younger. I ended up making up yellow dock root tincture when he was young and slipping teeny tiny amounts into his soda to get his iron up slowly but surely when he was small. This is much easier. I am honestly thrilled that something like this is available and would definitely recommend if your kid is on an extremely limited diet (like mine). So, if you are struggling to get nutrients into your kid, I definitely suggest you check them out.
Here's a link to their site so you can check them out on your own...
And now I'm off to get the son some lunch. Hope someone finds this helpful out there.
Enjoy!
