Healthy Sweets for Treats…..too good to be true?

19th September 2017 Miscellanious

If anyone has a toddler like me then I assume that their sweet tooth has arrived. We did everything by the book – in fact the first time she tasted artificial sugar was a tiny piece of cake on her first birthday – however it didn’t make a blind bit of difference. She is now a complete sugar monster who has a tendancy to demand chips, crisps, ice cream and lollypops in equal measure. Therefore one thing I do stress about is making sure she has a balanced diet.

Some days she does amazing – weetabix, yogurts, spaghetti bolognaise, grapes, chilli. Other days less so – buttery toast, chips, heinz pasta, crisps, chocolate. When they’re just shy of 3 though, you pick your battles. It’s on days like these though that I worry that nutritionally she isn’t getting what she needs. We used to use liquid vitamins in her bedtime milk but those days are long gone now and in all honestly it tastes like crap so she just won’t drink anything I put it in.

THE FACTS AND FIGURES

• Only 8% of children aged 11-18 (and 27% of adults) meet the 5 a day guidelines
• Nearly 50% of children won’t eat certain foods because of their colour
• 42% of children say the colour of food can change its taste
• Children’s most popular food colour choices include red and orange
• Some children said that they make their food colour choices based on the weather
• Nearly 40% of children make food choices based on if they like the colour
• 31% of children say their food colour choices are linked to their emotions with half saying they choose colours that make them happy.

Source: healthspan

And do you know what? I’m not surprised by any of this. Especially considering that my particular toddler will like something one week and a week later she “can’t like it” anymore. That could be because it looks different, smells different or even just came on the wrong colour plate (silly mummy).

SO, WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

Step forward Healthspan! They have a product which is MultiVitality Children’s Gummy Bears which are basically little gummy bear sweets that are sugar free and packed with micronutrients. They come in lemon, orange and raspberry flavours; though we are very quickly running out of the ‘pink’ raspberry ones – I’m hoping she’ll happily move onto another flavour once they’re all gone!

WHAT’S IN IT?

Vitamin A for normal growth & development. Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B12 both help with metabolism and energy production. Vitamin C for healthy muscles and skin. Vitamin D3 for bone and tooth development. Vitamin E for healthy skin and eyes. Vitamin K1 for blood clotting to encourage healing. Biotin (0r Vitamin H) helps to convert food into energy and Folic Acid helps the body form healthy red blood cells.

In fact the only things not included is calcium and iron so there’s still a little work to do alongside these gummy bears to try and get your tiny humans to at least attempt to eat healthily.

SO WHAT’S THE CATCH?

The downside, well try giving a three year old just one sweet! It doesn’t go down too well so we give it in a little bowl of sweet treats: a few grapes, raisens and her vitamin sweet. Sometimes it works, but adimittedly sometimes it doesn’t. That’s toddlers for you though right?!

MultiVitality Childrens Gummy Bears can be found on the Healthspan website and cost £9.95 for 80 Gummies, so thats an almost 3 month supply for less than £10. This is a product that we were sent for review, but is easily something that we will continue to buy. As for me at least, anything that gets a few vitamins into my daighter with minimal fuss is a winner to me.

DISCLOSURE: I was provided with this item in return for my honest review. As always though, all opinions expressed in this post are my own.