Every parent wants to give their children the best possible start in life. That means making sure they get the best possible education, giving them as many opportunities as possible, and helping to foster their talents and interests as they grow older.
It also means making sure your child has a healthy diet and gets the nutrition their growing bodies need.
Many parents struggle with whether or not they should give their children vitamins and supplements. Sometimes your doctor will recommend a vitamin or supplement to help improve and maintain your child’s health, but do otherwise healthy kids need supplements?
What Are Supplements For?
Supplements are designed to help fill in nutritional gaps. Some supplements are designed to help with something specific, like the hair skin and nails supplements you might take as an adult, while others are more targeted at general health, like multivitamins and fish oil.
Just like adults, it’s generally recommended that children get their nutrients, including their vitamins and minerals, from a health and well-balanced diet.
But it can be tricky to make sure your child is getting everything they need, especially if you have a picky eater or your child has food allergies you have to workaround.
Supplements can be useful if you’re looking to fill in known deficiencies, but they can also be good support for a healthy diet as well. More importantly, supplementing can help make sure your children have the vitamins their body needs when they need them.
That means that your child’s growth won’t suffer just because they eat junk food for a day or two, or because they need more of a specific vitamin to help with their current growth phase.
IF you’re struggling to get your child to take their vitamins regularly, you can also use children’s gummy vitamins to help encourage them to take them willingly.
Reasons To Give Your Child Vitamins
There are lots of reasons to give your child vitamins, and it’s not all about helping them get good nutrition.
Filling Nutrition Gaps
If you have a picky eater or your child has a serious food allergy, it can be difficult to make sure they are getting everything they need from their diets. It’s easier with things like a peanut allergy since you only have to avoid peanuts.
But if your child has a corn allergy or a gluten allergy, it becomes a lot more difficult to help them get a nutritionally complete diet.
Regardless of the reasons, a good children’s multivitamin can help fill those nutritional gaps.
Building Healthy Habits
Another common reason for parents to give their kids a vitamin or supplement is to help them develop healthy habits and to help them get better about taking daily medication.
Helping your child build these healthy habits will make it easier for them to follow the instructions on prescription medicine later. It can also help them be better about taking antibiotics when they get sick.
It’s even helpful to build those habits for their adult life since there’s a good chance that your child will have to deal with vitamins, supplements, and even prescription medications as an adult.