Do You Know Your Child’s Vitamin Needs?

 Even if your child eats in a pretty healthy manner, they may still be able to use a multivitamin formulated especially y for their age group. Children’s vitamins can be an important part of health when they are at different stages of growth. Eating nutritionally balanced food is the key to good health for children and adults alike. However, growing children need special care as far as their vitamin needs are concerned. Sometimes though, children don’t always eat in such a way that they get all the vitamins they need just from food. When children are taught the importance of a nutritionally balanced diet and making the right food choices, it kind of gets embedded in their head and eating healthy food becomes a habit, for them, even when they enter adulthood. But the sad fact is that many parents themselves don’t know what the right food choices are or don’t always make the best choices. 

Fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals and dairy products are rich sources of vitamins for both children and adults. However, children are more tempted by the alluring advertisements of fast-food joints and attractively packaged products that are artificially flavored, and tend to avoid nutritionally valuable foods. This is why you might want to consider children’s vitamins for your child. For a moment, put yourself in the place of a child and analyze the food around you – Will you prefer to chew on baked spinach or will you prefer to gorge on a pizza and some French fries? Will you prefer home cooking or will you rather tuck in a dandy, sugary ice cream? Will your mouth salivate for a glass of milk or for a chilled coke? As you face these challenges, it is still best to put good choices in front of your child and minimize the bad competition.  

Now take a look at the food pyramid and you will find that only a minuscule portion represents these fast foods. That means these foods should not make up more than a fraction of a person’s daily diet and they shouldn’t be a part of every meal, nor should they form a part of the regular snacking culture. Okay, you’ve taken a look at the food and the food pyramid – now take a look at your children and see if they are getting the right type of nutrition. If things could be better, then consider a children’s vitamin as an option.  Wrong food choices are ballooning up our children, making them overweight and obese, but deficient in vitamins and minerals that are so very essential for proper growth and functioning of the body. Yes, it is true that while the body can produce some vitamins on its own, but most of the requirements are fulfilled only through diet.  

As an example, right from the beginning, children need Vitamin D, because it is absolutely essential for the growth of healthy teeth and bones. Parents need to protect their children, particularly from rickets, a disease characterized by deformed or soft/brittle bones. The incidence of rickets, once considered under control, is on the rise and it is now turning into a serious health issue among children. Initially, it presents as a malformed, thin and soft skull, and then gradually starts affecting the growth of the teeth, wrists, ribs, knees, ankles, etc.  This is just how a vitamin D deficiency can affect your child. Deficiencies in other vitamins may not produce such visible effects, and parents may not even realize that their child is having a vitamin deficiency. Vitamins act like catalysts for many important body functions like maintaining vision, production of red blood cells and growth hormones, and contribute to the streamlined development of the body’s immune system, circulatory system, nervous system and the digestive system. It is the responsibility of all parents to ensure that their child is getting adequate supply of vitamins in his food. If the parents are not sure about that, then they must see to it that their child takes daily a multivitamin supplement specially formulated for children. These vitamin supplements provide the critical nutrients that your child needs in his formative years. So, as you consider your child’s health, you might want to consider children’s vitamins as a possible way to insure your child is getting the nutrition they need.