Calcium Supplements For Kids?

[Guest taweavmo3]

Since my little girl had her gluten reaction, I realized that I need to lay off dairy for a while. I felt so stupid.....up until this reaction, she was handling milk okay. Not a ton of it, but a glass here and there didn't cause a problem. She seemed fine yesterday, until she had a few sips of milk. She had stomach pains again, and was so wiped out she fell asleep in her clothes, poor bug.

Anyway....what do you do for calcium? I had bought the generic calcium chews (like Viactiv) but they have gluten contamination. She won't drink orange juice or soy milk. I have her on a multi-vitamin right now, but what else can I give her?

[Emme999]

When I worked in a health food store I had the chance to sample some of the vitamins - my absolute favorite were the childrens calcium tablets! The brand is Nature's Plus (Source of Life) and they are called Animal Parade Calcium - Children's Chewable with Whole Food Concentrates. They have 250 mg of Calcium and 50 mg of Magnesium per two tablet serving. I just checked out their website and looked up the ingredients:

Ingredient Amount % Daily Value

Calories 10

Total Carbohydrate 2 g <1 %

Sugars 2 g †

Calcium (as amino acid chelate/complex) 250 mg 25 %

Magnesium (as aminoate complex) 50 mg 13 %

Other Ingredients:

Fructose, natural vanilla, spinach (Spinacia oleracea leaf extract), broccoli (Brassica oleracea floret extract), fig concentrate (Ficus carica), date concentrate (Phoenix dactylifera), stearic acid, magnesium stearate

According to VitaminShoppe.com, they are free of common allergens (including yeast, wheat, corn, soy and milk), but at the Nature's Plus website it says that they may contain trace amounts of casein. But, if your daughter has not shown problems with milk before - it may be that she is simply lactose intolerant and would not be affected by a trace amount of casein. If she does react badly, you can probably take back the vitamins for a refund (most health food stores do this).

Anyway, these are *really* tasty!! I strongly considered just eating 8-12 of these each day instead of adult calcium supplements because they are so yummy :9 Unfortunately, they don't sell bottles big enough to last me more than a couple weeks

Good luck!!

- Michelle

P.S. Here is the website if you want to check them out!

Open Original Shared Link

[KaitiUSA]

Michelle-

Do they say free of gluten though? I saw vitamins all the time that said free of wheat but not gluten. The problem is that rye, barley, and oats are not major allergens so that could be in there unless stated free of gluten.

[celiac3270]

Since diagnosis, I've been taking a calcium supplement called: Natural Wealth Liquid Calcium. On the side label it says "GUARANTEED FREE OF: yeast, wheat, gluten, milk or milk derivatives, lactose, sugar, preservatives, artificial flavor, sodium (less than 5 mg per serving).

It says that it's for adults, though, sorry...didn't realize this was a kid's vitamin section. But maybe this will help some adults.

[Emme999]

Michelle-

Do they say free of gluten though? I saw vitamins all the time that said free of wheat but not gluten. The problem is that rye, barley, and oats are not major allergens so that could be in there unless stated free of gluten.

Kaiti -

I know That's why I listed the ingredients.

I also just sent them email. I will post their response when I get it.

- Michelle

[Guest Zmom]

LifeTime Liquid calcium for kids is dairy and gluten free. Tastes yummy too. You can get it at bread and circus (whole foods market) or on line. The animal parade chewable calciums used to say dairy free but with the new lableing laws...I could not figure out why my son still had loose stools until I noticed the lable change.

[celiac3270]

Kaiti -

I know That's why I listed the ingredients.

I also just sent them email. I will post their response when I get it.

- Michelle

I know the assorted chewables (regular vitamins) are gluten-free.

[Kasey'sMom]

Hi,

We had to switch vitamins also. We have dairy, egg, soy, gluten and nuts issues. I picked up a product from Hero Nutritionals that's called Yummy Bears. We've been using the Mulit. vitamin/mineral. The label says, "Free of: yeast, milk, egg, soy, gluten, salt, artifical colors, artifical flavors, salicylates and preservatives." Hero also has a Calcium + Vitamin D that's vegetarian that I've just order.

Good Luck