We are often asked why our children's vitamins are not gummy vitamins. While we know that kids enjoy them, it is very difficult to formulate and produce a gummy vitamin that holds up to our standards for kids. You won't see anything from Raise Them Well that we don't use in our own home. At Raise Them Well, our vitamin products are chewable, not gummy.
So, what are the concerns with gummy children's vitamins?
The large part of our concern lies with the way gummy vitamins are sweetened. Sugar, erythritol, mannitol, isomalt, and other sweeteners are common, and even formulations that say they are "sugar-free" contain artificial sweeteners and citric acid. We do our best to limit the sugar our boys consume and don't provide them with healthy food just to give them sugar in their vitamins. Some gummies contain the same amount of sweetener as a Sour Patch Kid and the serving size is multiple gummies. With the challenges we face as a society with obesity and addiction, nurturing our children's taste for sugar is not an interest our ours.
Gummy vitamins are also sticky, which means they adhere to the teeth and can cause cavities. Citric Acid damages and wears down the natural enamel that protects our teeth. Bacteria also feeds on sugar making the issue even greater for our kids dental health.
In addition to the negative effects sugar can have on our health, it can also effect the absorption of the other ingredients in vitamins. Yes, the presence of sweeteners of this kind can carry those vitamins we are trying to give our children right through. That's no good.
As many of you know, the FDA does not review vitamin products before they are available for purchase. With zero regulation over label claims, finding a trustworthy company is crucial.
Research has found that most gummy vitamins don't seem to have the components they claim to contain. In 2017, ConsumerLab.com determined that four out of five gummy products contained more or less than their listed amounts of ingredients. Creating consistency with a gummy is far more difficult than a capsule or tablet making gummies the most likely kind of supplement to fail testing.
Because of the challenges in controlling ingredient amounts, many companies will spray the outside of the gummy with the vitamins and nutrients. Gummy vitamins also tend to lack stability and potency decreases overtime. In an effort to combat this, companies will spray additional nutrients on the outside so that by the end of the vitamins shelf life, they still contain active amounts of the ingredients listed on the bottle. Not very accurate.
These are many of the road block we found when developing our children's vitamins, so we opted for the option that provides your children with a clean vitamin filled with the nutrients they need and nothing they don't.
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References:
https://time.com/5549874/do-gummy-vitamins-work/
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/what-to-know-about-gummy-vitamins#:~:text=Potential%20Risks%20of%20Gummy%20Vitamins,-As%20convenient%20as&text=But%20in%20most%20cases%2C%20the,enamel%20that%20guards%20your%20teeth.&text=Studies%20suggest%20that%20refined%20sugar,also%20has%20ties%20to%20depression.
https://www.pediatricdentistlongislandny.com/gummy-vitamins-good-bad-oral-health/