Such a great name for a vitamin. If I had to describe myself in two words it would be “smarty pants.” Once I read the label to see what was inside the vitamins I knew I had to give these a try. I appreciate the companies efforts for sustainability and commitment to making a good gummy.

I have been resistant to giving my kids vitamins for years because I was adamant about giving them nothing but whole foods. Well, when you have two picky eaters who barely eat anything that isn’t cheese, you start to worry they aren’t getting enough vitamins. Thankfully, my girls are thriving and they eat more veggies than they know about. Just check out my sneaky mac and cheese recipe. Since they won’t eat a wide variety of veggies I think they need a vitamin to help fill in the gap.

We received some free samples of Smarty Pants vitamins for kids and for adults. My girls and I gave them a try and here is what we like so far.

Taste

This is probably the most important factor when picking chewy vitamins for picky eaters. I am not thrilled these little drops are coated with sugar crystals. And I am just not a fan of anything gummy. I feel like it is so bad for kids teeth. But my kids are still too young to swallow anything in pill form. There is a total of 5g of sugar for 4 gummies- 1 gram comes from organic cane sugar and the other 4 grams from fruit. However, all that sweetness definitely balances out the sardine oil added for Omega 3s. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wasted money trying to get my kids to take fish oil. I even tried the flavored kind and added into smoothies. They discovered it and dumped it every single time. The good news is they will eat these vitamins without an argument. That’s half the battle for me right there. Smarty Pants also makes a no added sugar, fiber gummy for kids which I think we will try.

Nutrition

The kid gummies have Vitamins C, D3, E, B6, B12 and folic acid. My kids eat a limited variety of veggies (called carrots) and are currently boycotting all meats. So I am sure they are lacking in the folic acid and B vitamins. I like that the ingredients are sourced from non-GMO places. I like there is no high fructose corn syrup, or artificial colors. I often fall in love with a label on a vitamin just to find out one of the main ingredients is high fructose corn syrup. These are also gluten/dairy/nut free.

Commitment and Compliance

I like that every bottle receives a certificate of compliance before it leaves the production line. You can track every bottles certification by using the batch code on the bottom of the bottle. Although the label lists eco friendly Omega 3’s I could not find any certification, or labeling on the packaging or website that certifies the source. I do believe in the power of fish oil! But I want to be sure it is sourced and filtered properly before ingesting.

Price

I am a huge fan of their sponsorship of Vitamin Angels. Every time I buy a bottle of vitamins for my kids, another kid in another country gets a bottle of vitamins too. That’s a hard thing to pass up. Walgreen’s carries this line of vitamins for around $10 a bottle for a 30 day supply. I am sure you can find other deals online. Overall, Smarty Pants vitamins are affordable, kid friendly vitamins from a company with any eye on sustainability and commitment to helping kids (and adults) get the most healthy nutrition possible.

My kids enjoyed the samples and took them without rejection. I think these will be our favorite vitamins… for now. 😉

No financial compensation was given for this review. All opinions belong solely to The Whatever Mom. This post does not contain any affiliate links. 

The Whatever Mom is a twin mom learning to let go of perfection. She shares her real life struggles with parenting through her blog and contributes her time and talents as a writer to Hudson Valley Parent and Masshole Mommy. When she isn’t writing you can find her chugging coffee, folding laundry and not judging other parents. Don’t forget to subscribe via email so you never miss a blog post again! You can also find her work featured on Mamapedia and The Novice Mommy.

Hi! My name is Roxanne and I am a recovering Perfect Parent. [Welcome Roxanne!]

Before my twins were born and threw my life into an absolute whirl of chaos, I was the perfect parent. No really. I was. I didn’t need to experience the challenges of a high risk pregnancy, or to pull an all-nighter with screaming babies to figure it all out. I KNEW exactly what I needed to do to get the job done! Here’s why I thought that:

No Point of Reference

I had zero idea what it felt like to try to make a coherent decision armed with only 15 minutes of sleep. All the parenting choices I made for other people’s children were made after a full night’s sleep and a complete breakfast after a 30 minute hot shower. I was primed to make good decisions! After weeks of no sleep I can remember calling our doctor at 3:00 a.m. begging her to tell me what to do with a baby that just would not stop screaming. I had read all the books about how to soothe a baby and how to attend to their needs. None of them worked. I gave into panic and drove my newborn to the ER. It turned out nothing was wrong. I was so tired and worn out that the ER seemed like the best idea. Before having my own children I thought I knew exhaustion. I thought I knew everything about getting a baby to sleep because I had done it a thousand times. However, I never had to do it in the middle of the night with a teething babe.

The Struggles Are Real

I remember my niece was a super picky eater growing up. To the point we were all convinced she would never learn to eat a proper meal in her life if we didn’t constantly intervene. I scoured the Internet for recipes and sent printed copies to my brother and sister in-law insisting this would be the recipe that changed their lives! (Yes, I see now how obnoxious that was). What I didn’t know is having a picky eater is painful. I now have two very picky eaters who are healthy and doing well. But it is a grueling process making food you can only hope they will take even JUST ONE bite before rejecting it. I hear other parents and non-parents say all the time, “well when I was a kid we either ate or went without,” or “no child ever starved themselves, they’ll get the message.” Ehem. Mine haven’t. They have literally made themselves vomit because they’ve refused my offerings and I have refused to let them have an alternative. That is a very real struggle in my house.

Life Under a Microscope

When I was a perfect parent I had no idea how much input other people would like to have in my parenting choices. I had no idea how many times a day strangers approach parents with their two cents and values on child rearing. I had no idea I was even one of those people. Well, I never approached strangers. But I certainly had all the answers for my sister. I was the fun, cool aunt who never had to raise her voice. What a false sense of parenting that gave me. I remember telling my sister specifically, “it’s simple all you have to do is,” and before I could even finish she shot back with, “you don’t even have a clue what it’s like to be a parent. You’ve only ever read about it in books.” That stung my ego pretty deep. Now as a parent I completely understand her irritation with my know it all attempt to “fix” her problem.

I Knew Kids at Their Best

I worked with kids of all ages in a school setting. I knew how to keep kids busy. I knew how to make them laugh and I knew how to make the shy kid feel like part of the class. The time I spent in the classroom was approximately 4-6 hours per day. Just enough time to enjoy kids at their best. I spent years baby sitting and really enjoying a positive connection with my nieces and nephews. They stayed with me every summer for vacation. I had experienced it all right? Nope. I did not experience kids at their worst when they are melting down and fighting bedtime. I had never experienced the heartache a parent feels when their child is sick through the night. As a perfect parent I was able to just crawl into my bed at any hour of the night. I’d pull my covers up tight before I drifted off for that luxurious 8 hours of slumber. Perfect parents you enjoy that sleep while you can. Once you become one of us imperfect parents you will never sleep as luxuriously again.

What I Know Now

What I know now is that there is no such thing as a perfect parent. There is no such thing as a once size fits all approach to parenting. Every kid is different. Every family has its own set of struggles. What works for one family may not work for another. It’s safe to say, “I can relate to your struggles and if it helps here’s what worked for me.” But to offer adamant advice or suggestion on how a parent should approach their struggles is guaranteed to piss off any parent, and put them on the defense. That defensiveness is guaranteed to bruise someone’s ego or feelings for trying to help.

So to perfect parents everywhere, we respect you may know a lot about taking care of kids and understand how to have fun with them. But you are not the experts in our struggles. And to all of my fellow imperfect parents let’s cut the perfect ones some slack. We know they mean well just like we did when we had this parenting thing all figured out … you know before we became actual parents.

The Whatever Mom is a twin mom learning to let go of perfection. She shares her real life struggles with parenting through her blog and contributes her time and talents as a writer to Hudson Valley Parent and Masshole Mommy. When she isn’t writing you can find her chugging coffee, folding laundry and not judging other parents. Don’t forget to subscribe via email so you never miss a blog post again! You can also find her work featured on Mamapedia and The Novice Mommy. 

Picture it. A new mother sweetly smiling at the content, sleeping baby in her arms. Wearing a freshly pressed white nightgown and not a hair out of place against her perfectly glowing skin, she is a vision of motherhood. In a magazine quality nursery she lovingly cups her baby’s pink cherub like cheek with her perfectly manicured hand. Insert some new no fuss baby sleeping technique conjured up by the latest baby professional. End Scene. (This is where the gentle lullaby plays on).

Awwwwe. Wasn’t that pretty and so relaxing to watch? Now, let me show you how this scene really plays out. It’s a scene from my own life. 

Picture it. It’s the middle of the night. I have a frazzled look of self doubt on my face as I (the new mother) wearily scan my screaming baby for answers. There are none to be found and I wonder why the hour-long crying session continues. I am dressed only in my thinned and stretched out maternity granny panties because the weight I gained is holding on to my midsection and my bum like two drowning sewer rats. My formula slash puke covered ratty t-shirt lays in a crumpled mess in the middle of the nursery floor. A fresh coating of formula is now covering the front of me and my tear streaked red-faced infant. I press my hands, complete with jagged chipped nails, against the back of a sweaty little head on my shoulder hoping to avoid another eardrum shattering scream.

The nursery looks like the leftovers of a frat party weekend. The crib is half torn apart and half put together with new bedding. The changing table is covered with diarrhea-filled diapers that could not take all that my poor baby was giving. The bottle of fever reducer medicine is stuck to the rug and the cap is nowhere to be found among the chaos.

Enter the cautious daddy who scans the room and knows it is best to slowly back away while gently closing the door behind him. He decides he will do clean up duty later. End Scene.

Now I wonder why this scene has not ended eight months later? I will tell you why….because the pompous baby professionals don’t know how to get my baby to {bleeping} sleep!

I have read numerous popular parenting websites, some not so popular websites and several books by big name professionals. All of them claim to know the secret to get my baby to sleep easily and stay a sleep. My reply to them is an eight-month sleep deprived unladylike raised middle finger. (Notice the un-manicured nail?!).

I have tried sleep training, sleep weaning, co sleeping, crib sleeping, swing sleeping, motion to sleep and propped sleeping. I have even heart achingly struggled through sleep deprived scream sessions hoping she would tire out and sleep longer. No matter how much I try my daughter sleeps when she wants, where she wants and only for two hours at a time. That’s during a good night.

The conclusion I have come to is that no matter which sleep technique I find (and try for weeks), my daughter is going to decide when and how she sleeps. So my warning to everyone is this: if you come to my house and ignore the cute “Sssshh Baby Sleeping” sign on my door expect to get throat punched by a very pissy and sleep deprived mommy.

Debra is a first time mom to her beautiful rainbow baby Skyler, a wife, a blogger and an ordained minister. She enjoys crafting and creating educational fun for her step sons and decorating her home. Find Debra at Crossing New Bridges on Facebook and on Twitter.