Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
The belief of most parents is that children are eating a fairly healthy diet and if not they give up and throw their hand up in the air. Parents then provide multivitamins. Now that they come in gumballs, gummi candies, cute animals, and cartoon character shapes, children think they are candy and giving vitamins is not a bad thing.
If they are within a child’s reach it is a serious problem because they could be taking them without your knowledge. At any suspicion that your child has taken too many call Poison Control immediately and get them to an emergency facility. Your child could become seriously ill or die from an overdose of a multivitamin with iron in it.
It is vital to keep all manner of medication out of the reach of your children. For the most part children get their vitamins from their diet but if you think they need them generic multivitamins are fine. If your child’s special needs are an allergy to dairy products or that they won’t eat them, the calcium must come from other sources.
Consulting with your child’s pediatrician will benefit your child. Even though your child’s diet may not have been great this week all that is needed is one vitamin a day. If you get too much of one vitamin it could prevent others from being absorbed by the body.
If your child for example gets an excess of calcium it could prevent the absorption of iron and other vitamins. Children’s food choices are not always healthy so you can expect to be giving your child vitamins well into their teens. Before you consider buying vitamins know that opinions vary regarding vitamins with iron for children.
One premise is that, in fact, you be giving vitamins with iron. Vitamins with iron says another school of thought, under no circumstances should be given vitamins with iron. As an infant, it was my experience, that my child was iron deficient.
My child’s doctor put him on iron fortified vitamins and he’s now healthy but always check with your doctor on this. Hemochromatosis is a disease caused by too much iron in the blood. The body can no longer utilize the iron and it is not washed out of the body easily. It may cause very serious health issues and even death.
An important part of your child’s diet is calcium that helps to build strong bones and muscles. Calcium is a mineral. Eating ice cream, cheese, and yogurt as well as drinking milk will usually provide all the calcium your child needs from their diet. There are people who don’t like dairy products and some who are allergic to them.
Helping children get what they need is easy when you give them calcium fortified juices, cereals, and vitamins. Many children get sufficient fluoride from treated tap water and bottled war or using tooth paste. Do not administer fluoride supplements to your child without first checking with his doctor.
Too much fluoride might permanently stain your child’s teeth. This will defeat totally the purpose of treating water and using fluoridated toothpaste. An eyedropper is used to administer liquid infant multivitamins. These drops usually have vitamins A, C, and D as well as added iron in them.
They might contain other vitamins and minerals such as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin B-12. Vitamins for children are available in chewable forms such as cartoon characters and animals. They now come in gummi candy and gumballs forms.
If your child gives you difficulty with taking his vitamins, try getting him the gumballs or the gummi candy vitamins. Never leave your child unsupervised when s/he is taking his vitamins. My own child is given his vitamins rather than allow him to take them on his own. He might take it or not or he could take way too many.
Although vitamins for children can be a good thing, too much of a good thing could be fatal. It is vital that they are kept out of the reach of children. Giving your child vitamins may offset some of the effects of not always eating right.
Your child’s diet should not be adjusted without discussing it with his pediatrician, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Vitamins with fun shapes are fine but because your child could think they are ‘candy’, they should be in a locked cabinet or kept well out of reach.
