I’ve been asked a few times now about the EllaOla multivitamins. So I went ahead and bought them myself. I bought both the toddlers and the kids. The toddlers’ is for ages 1 to 3, and the kids’ is for anyone above that.
Luxury Multivitamins
These are marketed as a luxury wellness product. The packaging is absolutely beautiful. You can see this sitting on your kitchen counter, and you take out a little pack. Everything is individually packaged for the day, and it’s very upscale. But are they actually worth the price for our kids?
For picky eaters
The big selling point is that they’re flavorless, which makes them easy to add to juice or food without your child noticing. So they’re really targeting those kids who are picky eaters. And picky eating definitely can be an issue. But let’s look into these a little bit closer, specifically with the lens of if your child is a picky eater.
Meat-avoiders
These vitamins are not actually very potent. So if your child is a picky eater with meat. Let’s say they’re not eating much meat at all, then they’re going to be deficient, more than likely, in iron. Now, neither of these has iron in it whatsoever. So if you’re trying to find a vitamin that is specific to a child who’s not eating meat, not eating protein, these are definitely not your first choice.
Veggie-avoiders
For kids who don’t eat veggies, that’s something different. There’s a totally different set of nutritional deficiencies that can happen when a child doesn’t eat veggies. Looking at the ingredients here, there’s no potassium, which is something that is in vegetables. So if your child’s not eating vegetables, they more than likely will need it. And it’s not in here. The vitamin C is on the low side.
Bone health
And then, unfortunately, calcium and magnesium, they’ve combined that into one number. So I can’t really tell how much calcium and how much magnesium is in here. Both are critical for kids with autism who are picky eaters. Calcium is important for long-term bone health. Our kids are growing. We want their bones to have enough minerals to grow. So you need both calcium and magnesium for that.
Missing fiber
The other thing with these vitamins is that if your child isn’t eating vegetables, they’re likely not getting adequate amounts of fiber. That’s something to really think about. Yes, you could take a different fiber supplement, and that’s okay. Fiber is important, right, because it helps with digestion and healthy poop. And true, some parents use magnesium to have more of that daily poop. But again, I don’t know exactly how much magnesium is in here. So you might have to supplement additionally for magnesium if you’re going to try and use that to make daily poops. But magnesium definitely is not a substitute for fiber.
So, for the price point, you’re not getting a very comprehensive formula. And most kids with autism don’t need a luxury vitamin. They need something very specific and targeted that matches exactly what they’re missing in their diets or biochemistry.
Tasting the Toddlers’ multivitamins
Now I’m willing to open it up. I’ll show you. So it’s very nice with the individual packaging. You just rip it open. We have the nice little edge there. And I have a bowl here. I’ll pour it out so you can see the white powder. The grain is very fine. And that’s about as much as the full pack is. So it’s a decent amount of powder that you’d have to mix in. This one definitely is flavored. I can smell the flavor. This is not unflavored. I don’t know what flavor this is. It kind of smells a little peachy. Let’s see. Mmm, peach. Yep. But it is sweet. It definitely is sweet. It’s not sweetened with sugar. It’s monk fruit. So this definitely is not unflavored. Your child is going to taste it. It’s not bad tasting at all. It tastes like a crushed-up multivitamin. I thought I bought both unflavored. I guess not.
Tasting the Kids’ multivitamins
This one is unflavored. Let’s open it and see what we’ve got there. With this, your packets are a little different. I have some water. So it says this is a daily, so you need one a day. Rip that open and then let’s pour it out. You can see it’s floating a little bit at the top.
Obviously, it turns the water quite cloudy. So if you put that in some type of clear liquid, it’s gonna change. There was no smell whatsoever. Absolutely no taste whatsoever. So very good with the unflavored. No smell, no taste. There’s like just a little hint of grittiness. Not much, just a little, little hint of it.
So I’m putting myself in the shoes of a picky eater, which I can do. I was a little bit of a picky eater when I was a kid, so I get the vibe. But again, this is not potent. You’re spending almost $50 a month just on a multivitamin. And there’s no way that this could be your one and only multivitamin or one and only supplement that you need for everything.
Subscription woes
I bought these online, and I was automatically put into a subscription. So I was going to be getting one of each of these a month. When I emailed them to cancel it, they tried to talk me out of it. And I didn’t love that. I gotta say, that was like, oh, I was not expecting that. I can’t remember the last time a subscription service was like, Are you sure? I’m like, yeah. So I know my chemistry. I looked at the labels. I was not swayed. But the communications they were giving back to me could have made me feel guilty for canceling. Almost like, oh, really, please. Playing on that emotional part. And we, as parents, don’t need anyone trying to guilt us into anything, especially buying luxury vitamins.
Reputable brand, but not recommended
Now this brand does have other organic stuff, baby care, diaper rash stuff. I didn’t buy any of those, but it looked reasonable. So I’m talking specifically here about these multivitamins. So overall, not terrible, but not what I’d recommend. If your child has real nutritional gaps, there are much more potent and better formulated options out there, and often at a better price point.
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