From Great Tasting Greens To Innovative Partnerships: How Hiya Is Changing Children’s Health

Leave it to two determined dads to disrupt the kids’ vitamin and supplement industry.

Frustrated by the lack of nutritious, transparent, and health-friendly options for children, Darren Litt and Adam Gillman embarked on a journey to transform a marketplace that had seen little innovation in decades. They succeeded and launched Hiya, a company dedicated to reimagining kids’ vitamins with a focus on honest, third-party tested ingredients, free from added sugar or artificial dyes, and transparency about what goes into each and every product. In doing so, Litt and Gillman have transformed children’s health by empowering families to make science-backed nutrition decisions for their little ones.

What turned Litt and Gillman away from mainstream children’s vitamins and supplements? Sugar, for one.

To make vitamins more palatable and “fun” for kids, many manufacturers sell them as sweetened, sugar-coated gummies. This often leads to an unintended consequence: Kid consumers can wind up eating as much as 5 grams of sugar in a single vitamin. For perspective, that’s about the same amount of sugar in a chocolate sandwich cookie.

Hiya’s co-founders uncovered more than just an overload of sugar in kids’ vitamins — they also found a widespread lack of essential nutrients.

Only a fifth of children consume the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables. Essentially, children don’t receive enough vitamins or minerals from the foods they eat. That’s where multivitamins can play a pivotal role, but only if they contain the right balance of nutrients. Not all children’s multivitamins do, which can leave kids in a nutritional deficit.

One more element of the kids’ vitamin industry that seemed troubling to these dads on a mission: There was a lot of environmental waste. Hiya’s leadership team felt it was possible to have the best of all worlds.

To ensure that Hiya was different and purposeful from the start, Litt and Gillman were intentional with every step of the brand and product development process from day one. For example, the duo spent three years working with top pediatricians, nutritionists, scientists, and parents on Hiya’s product formulas. As a result, several strategies differentiate their company from the competition.

1. Hiya upholds strict standards for safety and third-party testing.

As fellow parents, Hiya’s founders take the safety and wellbeing of families everywhere extremely seriously. In a space where supplement quality can vary, Hiya continues to uphold the highest, most stringent standards to ensure its portfolio of products are not only healthy for kids, but also safe. Third-party testing with an FDA-certified and registered laboratory is part and parcel of this brand commitment.

Every single product batch is third-party tested for any potential contaminants, including heavy metals like lead, mercury, chromium, arsenic, and cadmium, as well as microbials. Hiya’s rigorous testing ensures its products meet or exceed safety standards.

2. Hiya fights against multivitamin “sugar monsters.”

The “sugar monster” appears throughout the Hiya website as a visual reminder that some kids’ multivitamins might taste good, but they aren’t necessarily good for young consumers. Rather than resort to coating their vitamins with sugar, Hiya relies on monk fruit extract and dentist-approved mannitol to sweeten each chewable.

But do parents care that Hiya cares? All signs point to yes. Hiya is trusted by parents, because their kids aren’t ingesting artificial dyes or common allergens like yeast, wheat, dairy, gluten, eggs, nuts, or soy, either.

3. Hiya keeps children’s perspectives in mind during product development.

By and large, kids aren’t typically impressed by the nutritional value of their vitamins and supplements. Yes, they’re getting more than 15 essential vitamins and minerals in Hiya’s classic kids’ multivitamin to support immunity, growth and development, but they’re more interested in having a delicious, fun experience. Hiya’s creators understand this kid mindset and don’t try to fight it. In fact, they lean into it, which is why a product like Daily Greens & Superfoods has a decidedly chocolate flavor. Though the product is a mix-in, it doesn’t behave (or taste) like adult-style green super powders.

Alongside its great flavor, Hiya’s Daily Greens is serious stuff, filled with more than 55 whole-food-sourced ingredients including organic flax sprout, organic barley grass powder, and organic acai. It’s meant to nourish the body and mind, boost and maintain energy, support digestion, and more. Kids might not realize it, but their “chocolate” milk is unlike any other beverage they’ll gulp down.

4. Hiya favors sustainability and environmental stewardship.

The idea of the “one and done” multivitamin pill bottle never appealed to Litt and Gillman. To cut down on overall waste, they sell all their chewables in pouches. Kids also receive an initial, reusable multivitamin bottle to call their own and personalize with stickers to help connect healthy habits with fun. This allows them to transfer their chewables to the bottle with each delivery and discard the small pouch.

Starting kids down an early path toward responsible consumerism makes sense. With Hiya, they can participate in eco-friendlier practices on a daily basis. The outcome? Kids feel more connected and attuned to not just to their own health, but the health and future of the world they live in.

5. Hiya seeks out valuable, kid-centric partnerships.

The collaborative efforts between multivitamin makers and outside companies isn’t new. However, Hiya has cleverly aligned itself with a visible, well-respected brand, the longstanding Hot Wheels franchise. Not only is Hot Wheels recognized by kids, but it has widespread generational appeal because of its enduring pop culture legacy.

Having partnerships like their Limited-Edition Hot Wheels one showcases Hiya’s commitment to helping its customers. Parents aren’t interested in forcing their kids to eat vitamins, and with Hiya, they don’t have to. Kids are naturally drawn to the engaging visuals and aesthetics of Hot Wheels.

Thanks to two dads who weren’t satisfied with the gaps they noticed in the kids’ multivitamin scene, other parents finally have a vitamin brand they can trust. And that’s a big win for children everywhere, as well as a wakeup call to other companies that there’s always a place for improvement in the children’s health market.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider.

BDG Media newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.