Why Give Your Child A Daily Vitamin Supplement?

Usually children get the minimum requirements they need each day from the foods they eat.  Today we live in a time that the foods available to us are highly processed.  Agricultural techniques often diminish the mineral and vitamin values of the fruits and vegetables.  This is true even when we choose to eat healthy.  That is why it is important to give your child a daily vitamin supplement. 

Before a child is weaned they normally receive adequate amounts of nutrition through breast milk or infant formula.  When children are eating solid foods and are weaned sometime around their first birthday and that is a good time to start the child taking a vitamin supplement each day. 

A vitamin supplement for a child is like a safety net for nutrition while they are toddlers and pre schoolers.  They are often picky eaters at this time.  As they grow older they begin to eat a better diet as their tastes change.  The nutritional supplement can give you peace of mind knowing the child is receiving the nutrition they need to grow healthy and strong. 

Vitamins are available commercially as nutritional supplements for both adults and your child.  The requirements however are not the same.  They contain the compounds needed in trace amounts for the body’s normal function.   Adult diets do not always contain the amounts of nutrients needed by their bodies and thus the body cannot manufacture sufficient amounts what of nutrients our bodies require. This is also true for children.  We cannot always rely completely on our diets for the nutrients that are necessary for our bodies.  This is especially true for children as their bodies are still growing.

Giving your child a daily vitamin will help you know you are meeting their daily nutritional needs.  Make sure you do not exceed the RDA for any one mineral or vitamin. 

If your child has sensitivity to certain foods a multivitamin may be necessary.  This is also true if your family happen to be vegetarian.  You will know the daily nutritional need for your child will be met.

Although giving your child a daily vitamin supplement will help meet their nutritional needs it is not a substitute for good nutrition.  Establishing good eating habits should still be your goal. 

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