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How to apply cod liver oil to the skin for effective absorption of nutrients as an alternative to orally off the spoon or via capsules.
Hands down, one of the most frequent questions I get is how to get a child to take cod liver oil. Giving a baby cod liver oil is quite easy as you just drip 1/4 teaspoon into the mouth with an eye dropper.
How about young children? Taking cod liver oil off the spoon chased with a swig of water is my favored method as demonstrated in the linked video. But what to do if a toddler spits it out? Not a whole lot except clean up the mess on the floor!
Once they spit it out after the first try, toddlers will typically refuse to open their mouths again for a second go.
What is to be done at this point?
Stop the Gag Reflex
If your child doesn’t like to take cod liver oil due to gagging, using a simple acupressure technique can stop the gag reflex for about 30 seconds. See the linked article for a description of how to use it with a video demonstration.
This approach works very well even for adults who struggle with this issue.
Absorption via Skin
If you’d like to bypass taking cod liver oil by mouth, the nutrients in cod liver oil are readily absorbed by the skin too.
In fact, until just a few decades ago, over the counter diaper rash creams used to contain cod liver oil!
Drug companies are increasingly taking advantage of the ability of skin to absorb chemicals of all kinds with the smokers patch being one of the most well known.
There are now skin patches for birth control and even a patch for motion sickness when you take a cruise or fly in a plane.
Skin will not only readily absorb drugs but it also absorbs nutrients.
How does the skin compare?
Research suggests that absorption of substances (both good and bad!) placed on the skin is about 64% with near 100% for areas with thinner skin such as the armpits. (1)
Externally Applied Cod Liver Oil
When sunbathing with no sunscreen, the vitamin D forms in the tiny pools of oil on the skin to be easily and quickly absorbed.
When you take Epsom salt baths, the magnesium and sulfur are readily taken into the blood.
In addition to vitamins and minerals, there is evidence that oil itself is absorbed by the skin.
Midwives frequently suggest rubbing castor oil on the belly of an overdue patient or using a castor oil pack in order to stimulate contractions.
Using this information to get cod liver oil into your child with no swallowing needed can be a very practical approach!
Thinner Skin is Best
Since high vitamin cod liver oil can stain clothing and burn the eyes, it is important to put apply it to an area that is not easily accessed by little fingers and hands.
It is also a good idea to apply where the skin is a bit thinner for maximum absorption potential.
With these goals in mind, the best place for application seems to be your child’s bare bottom. Slathering a bit of cod liver oil on this area during a diaper change once a day works really well.
You can slather the 1/4 -1/2 tsp daily dose on at one time if you like. There’s no need to put it on at every diaper change.
If your child is out of diapers, you can slather the cod liver oil on the belly area instead and wrap some gauze around the torso to keep it from contacting clothing. This method also works for older children with disabilities.
Don’t worry about a lingering fishy smell. Any odor is surprisingly gone within just a few minutes of application!
Which Brand to Use?
Should you apply the high vitamin cod liver oil with the synergistic butter oil too? That is a good idea as they work together to increase the potency and effectiveness of each other according to the research of Dr. Weston A. Price.
Please refer to my shopping guide for vetted brands that are pure, unprocessed and contain only natural vitamins.
This is the brand my family has used since 2015. If you decide to try it, be sure to use coupon HealthyHome10 for a 10% discount even on reorders!
My youngest takes it in his homemade formula. My insanely picky eater actually likes it and asks for it! The kid won’t touch fruit or veggies, or most foods for that matter, but at least she takes fermented cod liver oil!
Wow, you read my mind! I’ve been working on a post about how to take CLO and get kids to take it!
This is GOOD to know. I have the cinnamon flavor and it gags me every time I take it. The kids won’t even come in the room when I’m taking it! LOL! But if I can get some plain and rub it on them, that may work.
Can’t get your kids to take cod liver oil? Check this out……. http://fb.me/PPhM5Gqb
Wow, didn’t know this was not option although I still wouldn’t do it, because I don’t like the smell and I think also too much of the liquid would be absorbed by the diaper/clothes.
What I do with my 2yo is I mix his cinammon CLO with two tablespoons of apple sauce. He doesn’t feel the difference. Try mixing it with your child’s favorite food! Mixing with juice didn’t work so weel for us, because it doesn’t dissolve in water.
My girls are 4 and 6 so we just add the chocolate butter oil/FCLO to our smoothies: chocolate almond butter, frozen banana, coconut milk, a touch of honey and a splash of vanilla. We also talk about how good it is for our bodies! We didn’t know about using CLO when they were babies but the skin application approach sounds great.
Really, that works??
I have the peppermint FCLO, and it still have a strong enough taste – and feel, and aftertaste – that it’s hard to imagine it doing anything but ruining the smoothie…
I’ll be 81 next month. Growing up in the 30’s we were given our teaspoon of CLO and offered the choice of a pink, yellow, white or green Lovell & Covell mint as a chaser. That only turned us off mints.
Eventually, probably via a women’s magazine or the Boston Globe Women’s pages, my mother decided to try the then-new capsules, following the (idiotic) suggestion to bury one in a cupcake.
When it was my turn I bit smack into the capsule and got an unexpected and unwelcome burst of CLO and promptly threw up all over the kitchen floor.
I like this comment. Humans need to listen to their instincts more.
My 91-year-old grandmother just told me about how her brother “little Albert” was supposed to take cod liver oil, that he had “osteocrondisplacia”… He hated it too.
There’s a reason you have to trick kids into taking cod liver oil: human bodies exist at 98.6 degrees (fahrenheit), whereas cod spend their lives in waters that are 32 degrees.
I think it’s much better to stick to beef liver or lamb liver or chicken livers (warm-weather animals). You get all the vitamins without the nastiness.
-James
Hi James Knochel,
Although beef, lamb, and even chicken are excellent sources of vitamin A, they lack adequate vitamin D. If one were to consume these foods a few times a week to replace cod liver oil, they would have to regularly consume foods rich in vitamin D as well, such as fish eggs and lard.
My kids were a bit older (ages 4 through 10) when we started taking clo. I got them to take it by paying them each an extra dollar a week in allowance. I told them I’d rather pay them to take this as an illness prevention strategy than to pay some health care practitioner when they got sick. I also began by introducing it to them as “oil” at first, rather than disclosing its source. They never asked where it came from, and now that they do know, they don’t really care. When we switched to fermented clo, I began offering them a water “chaser” to drink afterward. Although they found the fermented harsher than the original, they still take it because they are unwilling to give up that dollar a week. It worked for me.
I take the cinnamon flavored myself.
Similar to Emily Duff, we believe in leading by example and making it a ritual. We discuss with our children how most cultures don’t sweeten things as Americans do and that the strong flavors are common to many people (not that this explanation changes the flavor, but the education trains their thinking). My husband makes funny faces as he takes his syringe full (our 4 children are little), and we all laugh at daddy’s contorted face. Everyone else is so brave compared to daddy’s pretend coughing and sputtering. I give them a small chunk of butter oil wrapped in their favorite raw butter. Afterward everyone gets a small bit of raw honey on a separate spoon as a reward. Sometimes I run around the kitchen table dramatically trying to hurry with each child’s dosage of the FCLO because they are all waiting for their honey. Other times, I just have them line up at the counter. It’s just “what we do.” The cold milk chaser is also great for those who are really struggling with the taste. The strong flavor of FCLO also provides a great incentive to have everyone brush their teeth right away without fussing afterward to “get the taste out.”
This is so cute! I can just see this playing out. What a loving and creative parenting strategy 🙂