Your child may not be meeting their nutritional requirements despite your hardest attempts to do so. Due to their increasingly stressful and hectic schedule, parents often fail to provide their children with a balanced diet, especially when kids are picky and fussy eaters. Supplementing your kid’s diet with children’s multivitamin is a step towards filling the gap in their nutrition. Let us understand more about how you can supplement your child’s diet with the best multivitamin for kids and fill their nutritional gap.
Over the last few decades, the nutritional value of various foods has taken a serious hit. The use of fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides has caused a severe depletion in the content of micronutrients such as potassium, copper, and magnesium in the soil. As a result, it is likely that your child is not getting a healthy nutritional intake despite consuming a balanced diet.
Surveys have found that over 59% of toddlers, along with their mothers were deficient in one or the other nutrient, especially those like – potassium and zinc. About 70% of the children under the age of six were also observed to be suffering from anaemia – a condition caused by the deficiency of iron.
Understanding Nutritional Gaps
Nutritional gaps occur when the body does not receive sufficient amounts of essential nutrients from the diet alone. Several factors contribute to these deficiencies:
– Poor Dietary Choices: Busy schedules lead to reliance on processed foods, which are often low in essential nutrients.
– Soil Depletion: Modern agricultural practices have reduced the nutrient content in soil, affecting the nutritional value of crops.
– Digestive Issues: Conditions like celiac disease or irritable bowel syndrome can impair nutrient absorption.
– Restrictive Diets: Vegan, vegetarian, or other specialized diets may lack certain nutrients such as vitamin B12, iron, or omega-3 fatty acids.
– Age-Related Needs: Older adults may have difficulty absorbing nutrients like vitamin B12 and calcium, while pregnant women require higher doses of folic acid and iron.
Failing to address these deficiencies can lead to fatigue, weakened immunity, poor cognitive function, and long-term health complications.
The average Indian diet often exceeds the nutritional recommendations for a lot of nutrients like carbohydrate, saturated fats, sodium and sugar, while lacking in essential nutrients like potassium, manganese and iron. So, while it may seem like your child is getting their daily share of nutrients, they are only consuming empty calories. Such a gap — called the ‘nutrition gap’ can cause a lot of health complications in the long run.
How Multivitamins are beneficial to your Child?
Adding the best multivitamin for kids to your child’s daily routine as a part of a balanced diet can do wonders for their growth and development. Some benefits are:
1. Boosts Energy
Toddlers often tire themselves out from engaging in a lot of activities. Multivitamins are rich in B-complex vitamins, which help in breaking down food into nutrients, and are a cleaner source of energy than sugars.
2. Improves Digestion
Multivitamins contain nutrients like zinc and phosphorus which regulate gut health and improve digestion by promoting the growth of intestinal flora.
3. Promotes Healthy Habits
Adults are just as prone to nutritional deficiencies as kids are. Consuming multivitamins on a daily basis at an early stage can develop into a very useful habit later in life — preventing various health complications.
4. Ensures Growth and Development
Multivitamins are a rich source of Vitamins A, D and E which are essential for the growth and development of bones and muscle fibre in children.
5. Improves Brain Power
Children whose diets were supplemented with multivitamins were recorded to have an improved learning capacity, cognitive recognition, and memory power.
6. Boosts Immune System
Children are often prone to falling sick due to a weak immune system. Multivitamins such as Vitamins C, D and E were actively linked with increasing the production of white blood cells. Which help in fighting off any potential infections and boost the immune system.
It was also observed that a majority of Indians were suffering from at least one preventable chronic disease. Which was often correlated to a lack of healthy eating habits and exercise. Conditions like Hypertension, Type-2 Diabetes. and Cardiovascular diseases were recorded to be preventable from an early age among those who had an adequate daily supply of nutrients by consuming the best multivitamin for kids.
Recommended Multivitamin Intake
The Food Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine has established a Dietary Reference Intake for various micronutrients and vitamins. Inadequate supply of micronutrients can cause severe disruptions in the growth and development of children. This was found to be a common occurrence in children who followed specific diets such as vegetarianism or veganism. In such cases, it is better to supplement their diet with the best multivitamin for kids in order to meet their nutritional requirements.
Given below is a chart that indicates the minimum recommended intake of multivitamins for kids:
| Nutrients | Recommended intake Per Day (RDA) |
|---|---|
| Vitamin A | 400 mcg |
| Vitamin B6 | 600 mcg |
| Vitamin B12 | 1.2 mcg |
| Vitamin C | 25 mcg |
| Vitamin D | 15 mcg |
| Vitamin E | 7 mcg |
| Vitamin K | 55 mcg |
| Calcium | 1000 mcg |
| Fluoride | 1 mcg |
Studies have also recorded that our bodies are incapable of synthesizing certain micronutrients such as zinc and potassium on their own. Children who fail to maintain an adequate supply of these nutrients were recorded to experience certain symptoms, such as:
- Thinning of hair and nails, often with a brittle sensation.
- Minute lesions in and around the mouth, also known as canker sores.
- Discomfort or bleeding of gums.
- Poor night vision, with occasional white growth around the eyes.
- Loss of hair.
- Dandruff, combined with patches on the scalp.
- Reddish bumps on the skin often found with ingrown hair.
- Unpleasant sensation in the legs, often accompanied by the urge to keep moving them.
Sources of Vitamins
While children’s multivitamins are essential to meet your child’s nutritional requirements, they are only meant to be used as supplements. The majority of your kid’s nutrient intake must be sourced naturally. Here are a few good sources of the various nutrients required for the growth and development of your child:
Vitamin
A – Carrots, sweet potatoes, and spinach
B – Meat, eggs, and fish
C – Lemons, tomatoes, and oranges
D – Milk, cheese and yoghurts
E – Seeds, nut, and vegetable oils
K – Cabbage, eggs, and broccoli
Potassium – Grains, legumes, and fruits
Zinc – Meat, shellfish, and pulses
Iron – Red meat, poultry, and fortified foods
Manganese – Tea, whole grains and legumes
Consuming the best multivitamin for kids in combination with these food sources has been shown to bridge the nutritional gap in many children. While these multivitamins come in various fun colours and shapes. You must make sure that your child consumes these in moderation. Always check with a paediatrician before giving your child these supplements.
Choosing the Right Multivitamin
Not all multivitamins are created equal. When selecting a supplement, consider the following:
– Age and Gender-Specific Formulas: Different life stages require varying nutrient concentrations (e.g., prenatal vitamins for pregnant women, senior formulas for older adults).
– Bioavailability: Opt for vitamins in their most absorbable forms (e.g., methylcobalamin for B12 instead of cyanocobalamin).
– Third-Party Testing: Look for certifications from organizations like USP or NSF to ensure quality and purity.
– Avoid Excessive Dosing: More is not always better—some vitamins (like A, D, and iron) can be toxic in high amounts.
Who Benefits most from Multivitamins?
While everyone can potentially benefit from multivitamins, certain groups find them particularly useful:
– Pregnant or Breastfeeding Women: Require extra folic acid, iron, and calcium.
– Vegans and Vegetarians: May need B12, iron, and omega-3 supplementation.
– Elderly Individuals: Struggle with nutrient absorption and may require additional B12, vitamin D, and calcium.
– People with Chronic Illnesses: Conditions like diabetes or gastrointestinal disorders increase nutrient needs.
– Those with Limited Sun Exposure: Require vitamin D supplementation.
Conclusion
Multivitamins serve as an effective tool to address nutritional deficiencies in an era where dietary inadequacies are common. While they should never replace whole foods, they provide a practical solution for maintaining optimal nutrient levels. By selecting the right supplement and using it responsibly, individuals can enhance their overall health and reduce the risk of chronic deficiencies.
