BC family creates hydration supplement for kids

Like many parents of school-aged children, Boulder City’s Alex and Anabel Smith often find their weekends filled with youth activities and sports.

That includes son Thomas, who will be a sophomore at BCHS this year and plays basketball, soccer and was on the state-winning swim team, to their youngest, 7-year-old Jayden, who loves playing baseball. And then there’s Isabella, who will be entering Garrett Junior High and plans to try out for a couple of teams while continuing her first passion, BMX racing. After all, she did win the world championship two years ago in her age bracket.

It was during those long, hot days on the bike track that Alex, almost as if it were a cartoon, had a light bulb pop up above his head with an idea.

“In traveling to all of her races across the United States, we’d be there 12 hours and she’d be exhausted and you go to the snack shack and there was junk food, candy bars and Gatorade, all of which are filled with sugar,” Alex said. “In the back of my mind, I thought it would be great to create something that could be made for kids that had nothing bad in it. Everything in that product has an earned place. So, it came about because I couldn’t find anything else out there for her.”

From that idea, Keiki Fuel was born.

The hydration supplement, which is added to water, has no added sugar, uses real organic fruit, with no artificial colors or unnecessary ingredients. And it’s named appropriately, since keiki is Hawaiian for child.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, hydration supplements are considered dietary supplements. Because of that, they are not required to undergo testing before being sold and do not require FDA approval. However, once they hit the market, the manufacturer is responsible for the product’s safety and the FDA can step in if a product is deemed unsafe or the labeling promises unrealistic results.

Keiki Fuel is, however, produced at an FDA-approved facility called Makers Nutrition in New York, the Smiths said.

From the time the couple decided this was something to pursue, to when they had their first container on their kitchen table, was just a little more than a year.

“I did a ton of research and reached out to probably eight manufacturers and a lot of them wouldn’t do what we wanted to do,” Alex said. “We wanted to use a custom formula with real ingredients and a lot of them wanted to push a pre-made formula that they already had. If I didn’t feel good about giving something to my kids every single day, I didn’t want to do it.”

Keiki Fuel currently comes in just one flavor, mixed berry. And that came after a lot of trial and error to get something that tastes good while sticking to the plan of having all-natural ingredients.

“Those first few batches were horrible,” Alex said, laughing. “It’s not easy to get powdered fruit to taste good.”

“Yeah, it was so bad,” Anabel added.

There are many hydration supplements on the market these days but as the Smiths explained, most are geared toward active adults. Alex said with Keiki Fuel, the levels of sodium and potassium are lower than those for adults. It’s also sweetened with monk fruit while the coloring is from organic beet root powder.

Since neither Anabel or Alex are chemists, they work closely with their manufacturer, who has chemists on staff.

“Our plan was to have four flavors but once we got a little overwhelmed, we decided to focus on one for now,” he said.

That may prove to be a good idea since they had to agree to pay for the first batch consisting of 1,500 containers, each holding 7.8-ounces of powder.

“This is our first batch to see how it does and then we’ll definitely start working on new flavors,” he said.

“Things are going well and we’ve received a lot of great feedback,” Anabel said. “Kids seem to love it. Our kids drink it three to four times a day. You can drink it all day long, especially in this heat.”

They said ideally, they would be able to sell Keiki Fuel in the smaller, individual packets that can be added to a bottle of water while on the go. Alex said the cost to make the product is very high and to put in individual packets would increase their costs greatly.

In terms of marketing and selling their new product, the couple has created a website, they’ll bring the product to Isabella’s races and they hope to set something up with the local Little League and maybe something with the high school.

“Right now, we’re just taking one day at a time,” Alex said. “It’s been a challenge getting the name out there but it’s a fun adventure. It’s just a side gig for us but I would love for it to grow into something that’s much more.”

For more information or to order, visit drinkkeikifuel.com.