Standing in Costco (alone, of course, which allowed the following-), I perused the children’s vitamins and weighed the various pros and cons of each. Sugar content? Gummy versus chewable? Mommy-guilt levels (because as all good mommies know, mommy-guilt is the secret ingredient hidden in just about everything)...
Mommie Guilt: It's not overt - but it's there. For instance, see where it says for children 2 & 3 years of age to "chew one-half tablet daily"? Yep, you guessed it - she's been getting 'em whole.
...By the way, we're really expected to guillotine these things? Really?
Finally the choice was made: Flintstone’s Vitamins!
I made my purchase and left, feeling very excited to be taking this next step of the Big Girl Journey with my little girl.
Aw, hi there, Fwed and Bawney.
I couldn’t then foresee several problems. The first being, my 3-year-old doesn’t have a clue who the Flintstones are. I think this is an issue with most contemporary toddlers, unless their parents hunt through random cable channels that run ancient cartoons at odd hours and can then DVR said cartoons. Or possibly the parents find them on YouTube and commence education thataway.
But not having that foresight here in our home, I’ve managed thus far to circumvent the issue by, every morning, telling her the name of the lucky character who tumbles out of the vitamin jar and into her chubby, outstretched hand.
Which brings us to the second problem. When something’s so cute and has a fun name, “Barney Rubble,” “Dino,” “Pebbles” or “Bam Bam” – how can the kid be expected to NOT play with it? Once named, our Flintstone vitamins began taking all sorts of side adventures on the way to their proper destination. Only this morning I had to assure Siennalee that her little purple guy - this time it was the alien… was there an alien on the Flintstones? - that he definitely would not do well venturing down into the bread machine as it hummed and bumped along with dough.
See? Aliens.
And the third and last dilemma, which is perhaps the most disturbing: Am I the only parent who finds it disconcerting to announce a cutesie name and character to a wide-eyed toddler holding the wee stamped vitamin and then follow it up with, “Now eat him”?
I really should’ve gone with the gummies.
7 comments:
I love that!
We went with the store brand that has chewable safari animals: hippos, lions, elephants, and more. Can you feel bad about chewing up animals that in real life chew up each other? The problem comes when children start requesting a particular animal. Then there's a shortage of zebras and everyone knows that shortages can lead to riots....
Congratulations to Sienna for her move from squirts to chewies.
LOL! We do the gummies (bear shaped).
Jessica! Gracey has been getting a WHOLE one for almost FOUR months! I asked velarde if that was bad, and he said she would have to ingest 10 a day to make it too much vit A. :)
Answers to your questions: for my petite little princesses who barely register on the growth charts, yes I did cut them in half when they were 2! Because of the mommy guilt at the thought of possibly OD'ing them. Though I got tired of it and starting letting Lucy have a whole one once she turned 3.
And yes, I did look up Flintstones on YouTube, or somewhere, and let them watch a few episodes. Just so they would be familiar with the cartoon heritage of their vitamins.
And yes, there is an alien. He was in one of the ones we watched, actually. The aliens come to earth and are attempting to clone a typical human, so they make a clone of Fred, and the only word he says to anyone is "Yabba Dabba Doo."
"Yabba Dabba due time.. we'll have a gay old time.." I guess you have to be 56 to know the tune.
I suppose eating the Flinstones is sort of like eating Bambi.
lol. You crack me up!
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