Special Vitamin Needs for Children

Eating a nutritionally-balanced diet is good advice for children as well as adults. In fact, teaching children to make the right food choices is one of the best tools you can arm them with. Unfortunately, many children today aren't taught how to make good food choices because their parents don't know what the 'right' food choices are.

There's no denying that the vitamins and minerals children need to grown are found in fruits and vegetables. They're also found in lean meats and dairy products, foods that children generally pass up when given the choice. Why eat those foods when the world has so many others to offer? 

Take a look at food through a child's eye. What do you see? Pizza, ice cream, corn dogs, hot dogs, French fries, potato chips, sugary fruit drinks, energy drinks, caffeinated soda, cake, cookies, candy, processed portable lunch 'kits' and of course, the all-important, readily-available, drive-thru fast food.

If you've ever taken a look at the food pyramid, you know that these types of foods are represented, but only by a tiny sliver. That means these foods should make up just a fraction of a person's daily food intake. They shouldn't be eaten at each meal, and in between, as snacks. But they are, all too often. It's obvious just by looking at children that many are not eating properly.

Not only are the wrong food choices causing children to be dangerously overweight, they're also the reason why many children are not getting the vitamins and minerals their bodies need to function properly. Of the essential vitamins and minerals the body needs, it is capable of producing just a few on its own. The rest must come from food.

From the first days of life, a child needs Vitamin D. Vitamin D is crucial to the development of healthy, strong teeth and bones. Rickets, a disease thought to be under control, is once again becoming a serious health issue. Its symptoms include bones that are deformed and that are soft and brittle. The skull, for example, is supposed to be thick and hard. One of the first notable signs of rickets is a skull that is thin and soft. If the shape of the head doesn't form properly, as can happen with Rickets, teeth may not grow in properly. And from there, it's getting worse. Wrists, ribs, knees, ankles all may experience abnormal growth.

Deficiencies in other vitamins may not produce such obvious effects, which is why many parents may not even realize problems exist. Vitamins provide the instructions for all bodily functions including vision, production of red blood cells and growth hormones and proper development of every major system including the immune system, circulatory system and digestive system.

If your child's diet consists of the foods listed above, you need to take immediate action. Try to introduce more vitamin-dense foods into the diet. In the meantime, encourage your child to take a daily vitamin supplement that has been formulated for children. It will provide the nutrients your child needs to develop properly, it'll taste good, and it'll be easy to chew or swallow.