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

My friend works for one of the major pharmaceutical companies and says that its all about the multi million dollar contracts and that vitamins were originally conceived as a means to appease a deficiency rather than act as a cure-all. The pharmaceuticals want to make money so they recommend taking vitamins. The majority of everyday medicines/vitamins act more as a placebo rather than having any proven benefit.

The trouble with research into vitamins alone is that it cannot be proved 100% that they benefit as there are other factors such as family genes, socio-economic environments etc that are just as relevant. People nowadays take vitamins as some sort of insurance for the future and the pharmaceuticals play on that. For every study that says vitamins are good there are ones that say they have no effect whatsoever.

I think anyone getting pregnant from now on is going to find that they ARE advised to take vitamin D aswell as folic acid. After all, before they started advising all women to take folic acid, they told women a healthy diet was sufficient.

One weird thing is why it took this country so long to realise that there was likely to be a vitamin D problem within the population - in many other Northern European countries (and of course, the US) you'll find people VERY surprised that nobody advised British people to take vitamin D supplements until recently (particularly since this country is so far North and therefore not renowned for its sunshine), since they've always been advised to give their children these supplements. Overseas, the recent change is to advise people to take MORE supplements than previously advised, rather than to advise them to go from taking none at all to the sorts of levels that other countries have now dropped in favour of larger amounts. And many other countries add vitamin D to their milk, which again we don't do in the UK. I think part of the confusion over how much vitamin D milk contains (answer: not much) is that some countries (including the US) supplement their milk with vitamin D, so people don't realise any more that this is an artificial supplement and in countries where it is not added, milk is a poor source of vitamin D.

TimothyClaypoleLover - that's exactly my point. Most vitamin supplements ARE unnecessary. But when you start getting children with rickets again, you either have to start testing all pregnant mothers and babies for vitamin D deficiency and treating on the basis of need, or take the cheap option and tell everyone to start supplementing in the hope you can get away with smallish doses taken by everyone being enough to reduce the vitamin D deficiencies to a sufficient level that rickets goes away again.

And then there's the proven link with multiple sclerosis... And lack of vitamin D means you can't absorb calcium sufficiently, so there's a link to osteoporosis as well as the osteomalacia that is definitely caused by vitamin D deficiency, which costs the NHS an awful lot of money.... If you ask me, the major pharmaceutical companies don't like vitamin D because it IS necessary, but won't make them any money. Weird and wonderful combinations of other vitamins whose role is not clearly understood are far more profitable. After all, you can pick folic acid up quite cheaply if you don't buy it mixed with anything else... not much profit there, then...

Gunznroses I was merely pointing out that it is all well and good that the government advises us on what we should and should not be doing, however do not supply any further support. I was unaware that vitamin D was advised for young children as neither the health visitor nor the doctor has provided this information to me.

I am not asking for hand outs and whether I work or not is of no consequence as to what the government do and do not provide

Signingmum said

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

You ARE asking for handouts!

SigningMum1 - I think it's just a case of recently changed advice not being disseminated in a co-ordinated fashion (or at all.... at the moment, you seem to have to go out looking for it). Hopefully the message will become clearer in the very near future so that HVs, midwives and GPs do all sing from the same hymn sheet. When I had my ds1 and ds2 7 and 8 years ago, I don't think the Department of Health advice was for all children under 5 to be given vitamin D supplements (even though in retrospect it should have been, given the amount of fuss that was being made about keeping children out of the sun!).

yes. i still do. and i take them myself. i beleive they make a difference to the health of our family- particularly the minerals such as zinc which i find it hard to get into my children in other ways.

Gunznroses you seem to be under the impression that my opinion of what the government could provide the children of this country is my own personal plight for free vitamins.

I provide my own vitamins for my children and I decide what vitamins my children should have, not the government

Pregnant women and those with a baby under one, plus children aged 6 months to 4 years who are eligible for healthy start DO get free vitamins. See here.

Unfortunately it won't cover early pregnancy, as you have to be 10 weeks to qualify.

If you get income support, income-based jobseekers allowance, income-related employment and support allowance or child tax credit with an income of £16,190 or less or you are under 18 and pregnant then if you fall into one of the above categories you DO get free vitamins. Speak to your HV .

In some parts of the country healthy start vitamins are made available to everyone because uptake has been so low. Sadly, their existence is not always well publicised.

The biggest issue I have with vitamins and minerals is that all the advised daily amounts are big guesses and we don't understand exactly how most of them work or in what amounts they might actually become harmful. I therefore do tend to favour taking them only when there is extremely strong evidence that there is a risk of deficiency within the population. So, if scurvy started making a comeback and we were told fruit no longer contained much vitamin C, I would start buying vitamin C supplements.

rabbitstew Oh i see, I didn't realise that was the case. It is a little odd that we're advised to keep children out of the sun and then give them Vit D tablets :). I tend to let my kids play out in the sun for 10 mins or so before putting on sun cream, as I think the cream blocks out the goodness the sun can provide.

rabbitstew - totally understand where you are coming from re certain vitamins such as vitamin D BUT it appears from this thread and RL that people just buy multi vitamins when they only need one type. And given that we don't understand how most of them work or the potential ineffectiveness or harm they could do it would be reassuring to know that people actually did their research on vitamins rather than just blindly buying vitamins thinking they will help. You only have to go on the internet to look at the various studies and there are several alarming ones where increased intake of a certain type of vitamin actually increased cancer risks.

The Dept. of Health has recommended vitamins for children under 5 since the 1940s. I highly doubt most people would consider that time period to be an age of the nanny state. It was recognised then that children in that age group would have trouble eating all foods needed to cover all the bases or get enough sunshine in many parts of the UK where the sun isn't strong enough or around long enough.

And as Kangarobber said, those eligible for Healthy Start can get free vitamins so the government is helping those who need it the most, but the current system makes them very hard to get (only certain centres have them rather than going to local chemist). Nutritional issues are on the rise, sadly, but unless you have a HCP who takes it seriously it can be left unchecked. I personally was left quite ill by one who said I just needed to 'eat more', neglecting to tell me how low I really was or that once you run low it can be very hard to get back up normal on the healthiest diet as the body can only absorb so much at once.

The Department of Health recommends supplementation of vitamins A, C and D for children under 5, in case children are fussy eaters. They haven't always pointed out that even non-fussy eaters won't be getting enough vitamin D from their diet (only about 10% is from food sources, if you have a very healthy diet) and that if you don't want them to be vitamin D deficient, you should let your children go out in the midday sun in the summer without suncream, sunhats or long sleeved t-shirts for at least 10 minutes at a time (although the exact amount of time is uncertain and depends on the strength of the sun and the darkness of your skin). Or preferably, have them run around naked in the sunshine for 10 minutes... and then keep your fingers crossed your body has enough stores as a result to last the winter and that you don't burn your skin trying to get the balance right.

Otherwise translated as, the advice is still very confused, because of all the competing considerations!!!!!

And the lack of understanding or knowledge on exactly how much sunshine you need and for how long. It does kind of make the advice to use a face cream with SPF 15 in it every day seem a little bit silly, though, doesn't it?

Maybe all women should wash their faces bare at midday and sit on a deckchair in the sunshine for 10 minutes.

signingmum i'm only going by what you yourself said, you said nothing about "children" (that could be another issue entirely)in your post, you simply wondered why if it was so high up on the government agenda why then wasn't it free ?

You obviously have seen your error in this statement so i won't labour it any further.

Gunznroses I have not 'gone back' on what I said at all. The original question is whether you give your children vitamins. It's a shame you want to pick a fight, I quite like Guns N Roses, went to see them in concert at Wembley Stadium, fantastic!!!

My 20 month old gets Vitamin D. I'm in Holland and it's recommended by the doctors and baby clinics for all kids, has been for decades. My friends in Germany and Sweden say the same.

signingmum i've no energy to fight! Lets forget all about it Guns N roses rock .

I do agree there isnt enough info given about these much needed vitamins, i didnt know anything about the need for vit d until i was almost crippled with pain, i described my symptoms to a colleague who suggested i might be deficient! Reluctantly i got some from boots used it for 2 weeks and to my utter surprise all the pains started to dissapear.

Re vitamin D for pregnant and breast feeding ladies - saw my midwife last week and in the waiting room were notices splattered everywhere about Department for Health advising taking vitamin D. I asked the midwife about it and she said not to bother and that the guidelines are only aimed at those with poor diets/medical conditions but that they have to aim the information at ALL pregnant and breastfeeding women. She said the majority of pregnant and breastfeeding women do not need to take vitamins or supplements at all.

DS was prescribed Abidec (contains vitamins A, C, D & 4 of the B-vitamins) free by paediatricans when discharged from the neo-natal unit.

And re. Vitamin D, it's hard to get enough from diet alone unless you eat an awful lot of oily fish. The best way to get vitamin D is via sunlight, and if you spend a lot of time indoors or covered up outdoors then you might not get enough vitamin D from the sun.
And in most of the UK, you can't get Vitamin D from the sun in the winter (sun's too low in the sky or something. I don't know the right technical words for it).

Timothy, your MW gave irresponsible advice. I am not a big pharma advocate, but you DO need folic acid and Vitamin D when pregnant.