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Children and Vitamins
Find out what you need to know about filling the gaps in your child’s diet with vitamins.
by: Dr. Alan Greene
Vitamins for Kids
- Breastfed babies should supplement with 200 IU of vitamin D daily.
- Only 2 percent of children eat the recommended number of daily servings from each of the four food groups.
- Seven out of 10 boys and 9 out of 10 girls don't get sufficient calcium during key times of growth.
- A daily multivitamin is a great way to fill in the nutritional holes in your child's diet.
- Read vitamin labels to avoid additives such as chemical dyes, aspartame and butylated hydroxytoluene.
o matter how hard we try to ensure our kids eat a healthy, balanced diet, the reality is many children aren't getting all the nutrients they need to thrive. Here's how the right vitamin supplements can boost your child's health.
Do infants need supplements?
Breast milk is the perfect food. As long as babies are drinking breast milk, they are filling their complex nutritional needs–except when it comes to vitamin D, which is linked to building strong bones and can also help prevent breast cancer, colon cancer and Parkinson's disease later in life.
Since we get this vitamin from the sun, and not our food supply, babies should receive 200 IU of vitamin D daily. (Most infants spend a great deal of time indoors and the depleted ozone makes it necessary for us to cover them up when they are outside.) Formula-fed babies don't require additional supplements, however, as formula is already supplemented with all the vitamins your baby needs, including vitamin D.
After age one
When your baby turns one, he'll be eating mostly solids and milk to fill his caloric needs. In a perfect world, he should be able to get all the vitamins and minerals he needs from eating fruits, veggies, whole grains, protein and dairy. But we live in a world where diets often fall short of perfection. It's estimated that only two percent of children eat the recommended daily number of servings from each food group.
There are 13 major micronutrients–I call them the Greene 13–that concern me the most when it comes to children and nutrition. These include: calcium, fiber, folic acid, iron, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids (especially DHA), phosphorous (except for children who drink carbonated beverages–they get too much phosphorus), potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E and zinc.
Most kids don't get enough of one or more of these important nutrients. For example, seven out of 10 boys and nine out of 10 girls don't get sufficient calcium during key times of growth. The solution? A daily multivitamin is a great way to fill in the nutritional holes.
I recommend starting to supplement after your child's first birthday (unless he is on a toddler formula that already has the extras added). The body and brain are growing especially fast up to age three, when many kids are notoriously picky eaters. A multivitamin now can pay off later. A June 2001 study published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews found a boost in non-verbal intelligence in children who ate a daily multivitamin.
What should you look for in a multivitamin?
Avoid gummy or candy vitamins. Daily candy is not a lesson kids need to learn, and it can be a hard habit to break. It's essential that you read labels. Many popular brands contain additives such as: hydrogenated vegetable oil, chemical dyes FD&C Blue #2 Lake, FD&C Red #40 Aluminum Lake, FD&C Yellow #6 Aluminum Lake, artificial flavors, aspartame, sugar, butylated hydroxytoluene (this preservative is a suspected carcinogen banned in all foods in Japan and Australia, and in baby foods in the U.S.), carrageenan, gelatin, and pregelatinized starch.
Start at your local health food store and ask for help selecting the best multivitamin for your child. Make sure the vitamin contains 50 to 100 percent of the daily recommended value of each of the Greene 13. If you can't find everything in one package, you may have to buy an additional supplement for a few of these missing nutrients or just make extra sure they are in your child's diet.
Meet our expert:
Alan Greene, M.D. is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of California San Francisco and is the founder of DrGreene.com. He is also the Chief Medical Officer of A.D.A.M., the Pediatric Expert for WebMD, the Chair Elect of the Organic Center and is on the Advisory Board of Healthy Child Healthy World. The author of Raising Baby Green, Dr. Greene is also a popular media personality and has appeared on The Today Show, and been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Parents, and US Weekly. Dr. Greene is a practicing pediatrician at Stanford University's Packard Children's Hospital.
