Do you give your DC's vitamins?

[CJ2010]

My DD is 2 years old and not a great eater. Should I give her a multivitamin? Do any of you give your DC's vitamins? If so, which one should I get? TIA

Well baby infant is the one.

No. So I grew up in the UK, winters have not changed, I did not have vit D supplement and I am still here, and so is my DH and all my 1970s friends. So why give them? Genuinely curious.

Exactly Chesnutx3 - I think fruitshoots would be just as effective in the majority of cases

Yes, I've been using Wellkid since DS was about 6 months. It was the only one I could find which has minerals in, such as iron, as well as the vitamins. I'm hoping that they do a chewy version, since now DS is 2 I don't think he needs to have the liquid any more. I'm not happy that it contains sugar, but I couldn't find any other brand in Boots that contained as many vitamins and minerals as that one.

chestnutx3 - the winters may not have changed, but kids/teens play habits certainly have! People had much much more outdoor exposure in the 70's than they do now, and they were not clarted in sunscreen either.

Also, mounting evidence of importance of vit d in the human immune system (cancer, MS, diabetes, also mental disorders etc etc).

Also - that spoonful of cod liver oil your mum probably forced you to swallow everyday in the winter, back in the day........ full of vit d!

Good idea to take vitamin D because some children are getting rickets again. Good idea because people use sunscreens much more carefully than they did in the 1970s and go out in the sun less (sun hats, fears about skin cancer, computers and other indoor attractions...), so aren't making as much vitamin D through sunshine exposure. Good idea to take vitamin D because women these days are advised against eating too much oily fish during pregnancy because of the risk of taking in excessive mercury at the same time, so the best dietary source is limited. Good idea to take vitamin D because deficiency of vitamin D is now being linked with cot death, wrongful accusations of shaken baby syndrome, cancers and is definitely linked with multiple sclerosis. Good idea to take it because you don't want osteorporosis (and certainly don't want osteomalacia) in later life and you need vitamin D for calcium absorption (no point drinking loads of milk for the calcium if you don't have enough vitamin D stores to be able to make use of the calcium rather than excrete it, and milk may contain lots of calcium but contains very little vitamin D). Good idea to take vitamin D because they are now finding that people who have been told they are malingering when they complained about fatigue and non-specific joint pain for years were actually suffering from vitamin D deficiency. Good idea to take vitamin D because the official NHS advice is now that breastfed children should routinely be given it and all children from the ages of 0-5, and all pregnant women should be taking it, and all other people known to be in particularly high risk groups for deficiency (eg people who are housebound, the elderly who can't make their own vitamin D as efficiently, dark skinned people in northern climes, people who cover up in the sun.....).

Is that giving a sufficient number of reasons?

Never given my DD vitamins and she has balanced diet and is active and outside every day. Neither have myself or DH ever taken vitamins and we are both very healthy.

I can see the need for vitamins where there are issues with diets or medical conditions but don't like the idea of kids becoming pill poppers before they can even talk. And the drugs industry makes a fortune out of what is completely unnecessary.

My kids play for long periods outside even in the winter as we have a large garden and live on a very quiet cul de sac.

It does seem that when they do all this research the conclusion is that as long as you are not obese, don't smoke and don't drink huge quantities of alcohol the risk of cancer for example is down to genes and/or luck not whether you pop vitamin pills at age 5 or eat cartfuls of veg/fruit.

IMO you might as well just through said pill once a day into the loo as most of the contents will be excreted by the child.

Mine eat liver and kidney, IndigoBell! (I call it beef in sauce)

I have tried Ds1 on Cod liver oil to see if it made any improvement on his concentration and moods, but my experiment results were that it made no difference at all.
Am still convinced that certain vits and minerals must help you, especially when fighting illness.

I would probably be of the camp not to take any vitamins if it weren't for the fact that a) osteoporosis is an issue in the family; b) in previous generations siblings in the same family have had multiple sclerosis; and c) I'm very fair skinned and hate being in strong sunshine for long because it makes me itchy and uncomfortable and is the sort of paleness that makes me more at risk of skin cancer. I could, of course, ignore all that, given that I feel and am extremely healthy at this point in my life, but I'd rather not take the risk of being told later on that I could have avoided having fragile, easily breakable bones by taking a vitamin D supplement.

Oh, and of course, nobody knows until it's too late if they are going to get osteoporosis, or MS. So it's not silly, given that we know that most people are deficient in vitamin D for at least part of each year, to do something about that, particularly since we are supposed to be worrying about skin cancer at the same time.

Timothy and chestnut, "expensive pee" may be true of many vitamins but not Vit D (which is not actually a vitamin at all but called one none the less!).

It is almost impossible to get the vit d you need from the diet, unless you are eating things which have been artificially supplemented with it.

Yes, cancers have a lot to do with genes, but it has a lot to do with environmental factors such as your vit d levels too.

Read RABBITSTEWS post, above, she puts it more eloquently then I could!

I have been banging on about this for years. Vit D is REALLY important.

If you are far enough north (round about watford gap would be far enough), the angle of the sun in the sky means the sun light is so weak, you could stand naked in it during winter and not make significant vit d. Playing in the garden with nothing but the face showing in the mid winter certainly won't make any!

Vitamin D is also fat soluble, so won't dissolve in water but in fat. That's part of the reason you shouldn't eat polar bear liver.
Mine have taken omegas from time to time, there is evidence that some boys can't convert the fats.
My teens tend to take a ultimate-vitamin, which seems to help.

Not to give vitamin D supplements to breastfed babies and not to take supplements yourself if you are breastfeeding or pregnant is to go contrary to the latest medical advice. I wonder how many of the people who refuse to take any vitamins also refused to take folic acid during pregnancy, despite its proven role in reducing cases of spina bifida?

Some supplements have been proven to be useful - vitamin D and folic acid amongst them.

I should be getting shares in Wellkid baby&infant, I have recommended them so many times today-

they have vit d (d3, the bioavailable kind), and folic acid, and my DC likes the taste. Much better product than ABIDEC, can be used from 3 months.

This is the UK Department of Health's not very well publicised advice...

The Department of Health recommends that the following people take daily vitamin D supplements:

?all children aged six months to five years old
?all pregnant and breastfeeding women
?all people aged 65 and over
?people who are not exposed to much sun, such as people who cover up their skin for cultural reasons or those who are housebound or confined indoors for long periods

?people with darker skins such as people of African-Caribbean and South Asian origin

Well that shut everybody up

If Vitamin D was that important to the Department of Health, why is it not being given out free???

DD (2) takes a chewable multi vit (ACD - I think) she's a bit of a fussy eater, and we'd rather just be sure she's getting what she needs.

Any extra will just pass through her body

Signingmum folic acid is VERY important to the department of health, is that free

I do not refuse to take vitamins, I just generally choose not to as I ensure I eat a healthy well balanced diet. I did however take folic acid in pregnancy as recommended and in 2 pregnancies have never been told by MWs or GPs that I have to take anything else other than folic acid. Since having DC I have never been told by HV or GP that they should be taking x, y and z vitamins. Just that they should have a healthy diet that covers all the bases.

My very point. It's all well and good living in a nanny state, however no real support is provided

signingmum depends what your definition of "support" is, support does not always have to be "freebies"'.

You are right in saying we live in a "nanny" state and sadly now can barely walk without crutches.

Why cant you pay for your own vitamins ? Im assuming you work ? You dont expect free milk so you can get a daily dose dose of calcium etc do you, i'm actually shocked that you expect to be handed free vitamins.

By the govt. Not paying for it they are actually allowing you to take "responsibility" for your own health.