NaturesPlus Animal Parade Vitamin D3 Children’s Chewables - Black Cherry Flavor - 90 Animal-Shaped Tablets, Pack of 2 - Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Hypoallergenic - 180 Total Servings

These are the perfect vitamin D pills for my kids. They enjoy the cherry taste and the animal shapes and look forward to taking them each morning. They are chewable, which is useful for my kids. They come in the dose that my doctor recommended for my children (we don't get enough vitamin D from natural sunlight because we live in the Pacific Northwest) and they don't contain any additional unneeded vitamins or minerals. Excellent vitamins. Highly recommend.

For some reason, nobody in town sells 500 International units Single doses of Vitamin D3 in tablet form or otherwise. So I had to purchase these sugar-free chewables. And they're very delicious, thank you.

While the "lead" comment above caught my attention, upon rereading I noticed that it was the FDA that did the testing. I have done massive research which confirms in my mind that the FDA is not after our best interest (to say the least). Do your own research on how beneficial Vitamin D is to our bodies. Even Merck's website (pharm. co.) states it's benefits. My children love this vitamin and I feel very good giving it to them. They rarely get sick and I owe it to supplementing their bodies with things that will support their own God-given immunity! It tastes like candy, so keep it out of reach!

They are vitamins. The kids sometimes remember to take them, I sometimes remember to remind the kids to take them. Since I don't have a lab to test what's actually inside these little candy bombs, I have to just assume they actually have the vitamins that are advertised. We used to make the kids eat a can of spinach every morning, but now they eat vita-candies.

My doctor recommended that I start taking Vitamin D3, since I live in the very far north, and we get very little sunshine in the winter. Adult vitamins are to strong for me, and I have trouble swallowing pills. These are chewable and pleasant tasting. Just what I was looking for. I bought two bottles. I can feel the difference already. They should help with colds and runny noses and if they help my sinus allergy problems, that will be an added plus. Super fast shipping too! I'm very pleased. Will reorder when before I run out. Thank you! :)

good on stomach

These chewables were well received by my 4 year old (not that he's THAT picky). The shapes are rather indistinct and dusty, so don't expect something as delectable to the eye as it may be to the tongue. They are all the same color, by the way, a kind of dusty blue/purple. No adverse affects or impacts on the GI tract performance.

We recently switched to these chewable tablets to supplement the vitamin D intake from the mostly Mediterranean diet of our children and their seasonal SPF-50 screened sun exposure. The two bottles I purchased have December 2021 as the expiration date, 33 months away; it indicates a very short shelf storage time since manufacturing and therefore very little loss of potency. The yellow area in the attached image shows additional manufacturer claims not present in this page at the time of writing.SUGARS. I like that these are *not* gummies, which (according to our family dentist and the children orthodontist) markedly promote tooth decay. Gummies stick in the teeth and keep in contact with the tooth enamel the sugars they contain and the resulting acids for hours, unless a very thorough tooth cleaning and brushing is done after chewing the gummy. An analysis of sugars and carbohydrates of 13 gummy D3 brands (those in the first 5 pages of the Amazon search "Vitamin D supplement children" [without quotes] of D3 gummies for children with a picture of their Supplement Facts panel) shows the following averages [mean ± standard error]:3.4 ± 0.6 grams (min. 1.8g, max. 8g) total carbohydrates2.8 ± 0.4 grams (min. 1g, max. 6g) sugars14.7 ± 2.6 (min. 5, max. 35) caloriesIn contrast, these D3 tablets have 1g of total carbohydrates, 1g sugars, and 5 calories. Giving sugary gummies can only induce children to eat other types of sweet candy.XYLITOL. However, I dislike that lower amounts of sugar are achieved, at least in part, by a fructose and xylitol blend of unknown proportions (attached image, red frame). And I dislike even more that the "About the product description" of this Amazon page does *not* disclose this blend.Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that reduces levels of _mutans streptococci_ in plaque and saliva. Despite its often claimed dental benefits, this has not been demonstrated in meta-analyses of past studies. For example, P. Riley and coworkers (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2015) examined clinical trials from 1991 to 2014 -- a total of 5,903 participants, randomized to receive xylitol vs. placebo or no treatment, and whose amount of tooth decay was compared, were included. The meta-analysis found, perhaps with the exception of toothpaste with xylitol, that the results do not allow "to conclude whether or not any other xylitol-containing products can prevent tooth decay in infants, older children, or adults." Similar findings have been obtained in other analyses, indicating the need for better designed studies to clarify xylitol benefits.For us, the main trouble of these tablets is that we need to keep an extra-vigilance so dogs at home do not eat an unnoticed tablet dropped on the floor or chew the bottle if left 'at paw.' Dogs quickly absorb xylitol into the bloodstream and, depending on the amount ingested, a life-threatening acute low blood sugar [hypoglycemia] and severe liver failure [hepatic necrosis] can quickly develop. Thus it is CRUCIAL to determine if a toxic amount has been ingested by the dog, a species where amounts greater than 10 mg per kilogram of body weight (~5 mg/lb) are considered toxic, and those higher than 50mg/kg (~23 mg/lb) have produced liver failure. Assuming a 50:50 blend of fructose and xylitol of 1 g per tablet, the ingestion of just one of them would cause dangerous hypoglycemia and that of a few more could cause acute liver failure, with loss of liver enzymes and impaired function ultimately leading to complete organ failure. These syndromes require immediate animal hospitalization. (According to a 2018 study based on a small number of cats, xylitol is not toxic to them.)Xylitol was the reason why I did not buy the sugar-free version of these D3 tablets. I have reduced my rating from 4 to 3 stars since the presence of xylitol is not described in this page, and its amount is not disclosed by the manufacturer in the Supplemental Facts panel. In a time that 50% of the overall U.S. population has dogs (75% for those in their 30s), household xylitol-containing products must disclose the AMOUNT of this chemical.