Do you and/or your children take vitamins?

[Sparkler]

If you do which ones do you take and why?

I went to a friend's house yesterday and noticed she had a huge shelf full of bottles of vitamins for herself and her children.
Neither myself nor my girls take any of these supplements and I'm interested to know if they really are of any benefit.

i sometimes take berocca if i'm run down.

dont give any to dd yet. nervous from all the conflicting press i've read on taking vitamins.

going to start us both on mor dha in the summer though. she'll be starting school in september and i'll be heading into my final year of my degree.

hoping they'll give us an extra boost. .

The only ones we have (and I'm not totally convinced by their benefit thanks to the very dodgy Durham trials) is Omega 3s. But this is less wanting them to be super geniuses and more because none of us in the family like any type of fish, so I consider it more patching a hole in a dietary deficiency.

I feel great and rarely get ciold if I take Pharmaton. Ds gets chewey bassets thingies.

No
Utterly unnecessary if you eat properly.

moondog: totally agree. The problem comes if for some reason you don't eat a balanced diet... Am not particularly happy with throwing money at the supplement industry, and I know it isn't as good as if we just ate some oily fish once a week, but I figure it's better than nothing.

No - we have very cheap wee in our family.

Not usually.

DD likes the Bassetts chewy vitamins so sometimes - maybe twice a year - I buy a packet of those.

I don't give any to the children, I try to make sure they get all their vitamins from their diet. I'm not convinced that taking vitamins tablets has any effect.

However, I'm taking folic acid at the moment as we are TTC.

ds and I every morning have a multi vit - as yes we have a good diet but I'm not sure we get all the minerals. and we also have a fish oil capsule.

Don't know if it works but with the fish oil, we hardly eat fish

DH takes vitamins but the rest of us don't - he gets a lot of colds so thinks vits will help (I don't). I am a non-believer! I think a balanced healthy diet with lots of green veg is the secret to good health rather than lining the pockets of Boots the Chemist.

I dont take any but DC take those multi vits like jellies mainly due to not eating a lot!!

The other reason for not giving the children vits is I can't get them out here!!! [GRIN]

FloridaKbear LOL at your DH taking vitamins and getting loads of colds but still thinking they help

I have a cupboard full but don't always remember to take them. DH takes his every day - Multibionta and glucosamine.

I have been giving DS Vivioptal since he was 3 and got a nasty fluey thing. Got out of the habit over Xmas this year and forgot to buy more so he didn't take any. Got every bug going over the last 2 months and had 16 days of school in 6 weeks. So we are back on the Vivioptal and I believe it does make a difference.

I would love to believe that you get all the vits you need from diet but don't really. DS is NOT a great eater - esp of veg. And there was a study done some years ago where they tested oranges from a supermarket and they didn't contain any vit C!

Oh _ I also give DS fish oils - Eskimo kids - as he is not keen on fish. He has dry itchy tkin so I think it helps. Certainly can't hurt.

My theory is that people have different levels of immunity. He gets a cold every month more or less, always turns to bad chesty cough. I had a bad cold last week, first one in years, literally, about five years. I might get a sneezy day but it's gone the next day so I guess I fight off colds better than he does so popping vits I don't think will change that.

sometimes kids just won't eat a balanced diet.

I take a pregnancy multivit right now and additional calcium but after pregnancy and BFing will go back to regular vitamins as I am veggie and don't think I always get enough of what I should.

DC don't get anything.

DH take some multivits when he training hard for a marathon.

Monkeytrousers - oh I know that only too well, my DS was a pita for food when he was little. I struggle with the idea that a chemically created pill is better than a fruit smoothie though but I am not an authority in vitamins.

Depends... both my boys think smoothies are vile.

so I guess vits are the answer then

Was a time when my DS only ate sausages and bread and marmite.

Now he asks for a big plate of "those green leaves" (savoy cabbage). Does my heart good every time he tucks in, I never thought I'd see the day!