Supplement Guidelines for Kids

Exclusive MNS Library Article 

Virtually everyone can benefit from taking nutritional supplements. It's a rare diet that can supply all the needed vitamins, minerals, and other compounds needed daily for optimal health. Those taken by children can differ from ones appropriate for adults and the proper dosage varies, too.

Vitamin D has long been recognized as one of the most important needed by children. Rickets, a bone disease in which the legs bow and ankles and wrists swell, used to be a common problem. With the recognition that sufficient Vitamin D could overcome rickets, the disease became very rare.

Beyond getting a certain amount from fortified milk and certain foods, Vitamin D can best be consumed in a good multi-vitamin. Parents should check that kids are getting about 200 IU per day. Some Vitamin D will be produced by the body itself - sunlight stimulates its production within the skin. But owing to the increased risk of skin cancer, and thus the higher use of sunscreen, children generally won't get enough additional Vitamin D from that source.

Professional nutritionists now generally recognize the importance of another supplement: B complex. That term refers to a range of B vitamins (B6, B12, etc) that are chemically similar to one another but have slightly different biological functions. One member of that family in a common synthetic form is folic acid, B9.

The value of that supplement starts even before birth, where it helps prevent neural tube deficiency in the developing fetus during pregnancy. The appropriate amount varies considerably after birth, from 40 mcg for the first six months of life up to 400 mcg at age 16.

Some of that can be gained from leafy green vegetables such as spinach and peas. But, here again, it can be difficult to get all that's needed from diet alone, especially since those foods are often not desired by children.

Beyond folates there is a more general class of compounds called phytonutrients that are known to help promote good health. Lycopene and beta-carotene are only two out of a very large group. Many studies provide strong evidence that they have a number of beneficial effects.

Though the view that phytonutrients can play a large role in preventing cancer is still under active investigation, other positive effects are well substantiated. Reduction in the odds of vascular diseases, thanks to the antioxidants in them, is well studied. Reductions in hypertension have been documented. The belief that they aid the immune system is well founded.

Obtaining the needed amounts from food is theoretically possible, of course. But many people just won't consume enough fruits and vegetables to supply the right amount. Vitamin C is needed anywhere from 40 mg up to six months of age to 500 mg at age 18. The recommended amount of Vitamin E is 5 IU at birth to 100 IU beginning at age 16.

There are a number of other supplements that have long been recognized to aid health. Calcium is one of the most common, since many kids won't get enough just from drinking milk. But there are newer ones such as GABA and others. Guidelines for these newer compounds are still under development. But even at this early stage, their role in health is undisputed by many experts.