What I do for my Kids:)

I'm sure a lot of you want to know what I give my kids. I'm a real believer in just feeding kids "real" food. If you can't pronounce something on the label, why give it to you kid or even eat it yourself for that matter? This doesn't mean my kids have never had fast food or white flour. You have to be realistic, I think. Just listen to your own convictions. I'm not here to tell you what to do, but just share what I do.

I never gave my kids store bought milk to drink. I don't know why pediatricians recommend you do it. I guess the fat and Vit D or something?? If you can get raw milk, that is awesome for them. Go to realmilk.com to find a local farmer who sells it. Otherwise, I wouldn't even have given my kids milk. If you start them on water, they'll develop a taste for it and drink it when they're thirsty instead of wanting a juice or sugary drink to satisfy their thirst. Sometimes I put a little Emergen-C in their water and we call it juice:) Juice itself is pretty much just liquid sugar and I personally don't buy it. If I'm out of or can't get ahold of raw milk, I use coconut milk. Silk makes it now. It has some added sugar, but to me it's the next best thing if you've gotta have milk.
If your kids aren't into veggies, you can do a couple things to sneak them in. One would be to make them a green smoothie and the other would be to give them some yummy greens powder mixed with some water or if you're desperate mix it with juice. I started giving my girls Earth's Promise Strawberry Kiwi Greens powder as soon as they were using a sippy cup. I know there are other ones out there and I've heard that there's even a chocolate one. I prefer the Earth's Promise though.
I've tried about every kid vitamin out there. Some people are really concerned if it has fructose in it or whatever...It's such a tiny amount that I'm not going to make a big deal about it. I look more at avoiding artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners. I started out with Rainbow Lights Children's Vitamin packets and mixed it in their drinks. When they got older and could chew...well we've had everything from Nature's Plus Animal Parade, Rainbow Light Stars, to lot's of different Gummies. I'm excited that Garden of Life finally came out with a kids multi. It's about time!
Another thing I think is very important for growing kiddos is fish oil. A lot of things will say DHA added..it's usually just a marketing thing and there is hardly any in it. I started out buying the Carlson liquid fish oil in lemon flavor and now I get the Carlson orange flavor in capsules. At $18 for 240 caps...well that's 240 days of fish oil for about $20. Can't beat that! My kids just chew up the capsule and they love it! They ask for their "Fish vitamin" every day. Don't bother with stuff that says kids on it. It's the same thing...just labeled different and priced higher. If you want the Cadillac of fish oils for kids you could get Mercola's Krill oil for kids. He also makes a multi for kids that's pretty much perfect!
Another thing I give my girls Vit D drops. I give them 35IU per lb of body weight and round up. You can buy 400 IU drops 1000 IU, or 2000 IU drops depending on how much your kids weigh. Carlson's makes drops and I also like Country Life's gel caps. They're tiny and my kids bust them open with their teeth and chew it, just like the fish oil caps.
Last but not least I give my girls probiotics...not every day, but almost. I really like Udo's Choice for Children. When they were smaller I gave them Udo's Choice Infants blend probiotic. Jarrow also makes a good baby probiotic. This is great if you baby get's thrush or yeast. If you're breastfeeding, take probiotics yourself and then you can mix a little of the baby probiotic powder with some water or breast milk and give it to the baby.