Do you give your toddler a vitamin (multi or otherwise?)

[merebella]

I have an almost two DS who still nurses a couple times a day.  We're ttc, so I'm prepared for weaning to be around the corner, if DS decides, or if I can't continue while pg.  So, I started thinking about vitamins.  DS is a pretty typical toddler eater. I can get some really good fruits and veggies in with a smoothie, but other than that, produce is kind of few and far between.  I do D drops a few times a week, but other than that I've just been relying on breastmilk to fill in the gaps. 

So, my question is: do you give your toddler vitamins/supplements? Are they breastfeeding?  If so, will you give one when they wean?  Any tips on brands or things to look for in a vitamin/supplement?

[crunchierbytheday]

My DS is 22 months and we had to wean him back in November when my milk dried up due to my being pregnant.  He was not a typical eater though (serious texture issues) and I had him start taking a multi when he was about 16 months.  He takes Nature's Plus Source of Life Animal Parade (the liquid form).  I decided on this one because it seemed like a good balance of things and I take the prenatals from the same company and really like them.  Animal Parade is also the vitamin his nutritionist recommends to everyone.  As far as other supplements, he gets a daily dose of probiotics (also recommended by his nutritionist) and now that he isn't breastfeeding I am looking into a dha supplement for him.  Hope that helps!

[Courtney-Ostaff]

Do you give your toddler vitamins/supplements?

Usually only when she's sick, and not eating much.

Are they breastfeeding? 

Until 2 1/2. Stopped due to caries.

If so, will you give one when they wean? 

Usually only when she's sick, and not eating much.

 

Any tips on brands or things to look for in a vitamin/supplement?

I really think that if you're aware enough of your diet that you think about it, that you really don't need one.  You can definitely OD a kid on fat-absorbed vitamins, and cause acute liver/kidney issues.  

That said, my pediatrician recommended this:

http://www.amazon.com/Enfamil-Poly-Vi-Sol-Multivitamin-Supplement-1-67-Ounce/dp/B001F0RA20

Oddly enough, my daughter never minds the taste.

FYI:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin

Vitamins are classified as either water-soluble or fat-soluble. In humans there are 13 vitamins: 4 fat-soluble (A, D, E, and K) and 9 water-soluble (8 B vitamins and vitamin C). Water-soluble vitamins dissolve easily in water and, in general, are readily excreted from the body, to the degree that urinary output is a strong predictor of vitamin consumption.^[13] Because they are not readily stored, consistent daily intake is important.^[14] Many types of water-soluble vitamins are synthesized by bacteria.^[15] Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed through theintestinal tract with the help of lipids (fats). Because they are more likely to accumulate in the body, they are more likely to lead to hypervitaminosis than are water-soluble vitamins. Fat-soluble vitamin regulation is of particular significance in cystic fibrosis.^[16]

In 2008, overdose exposure to all formulations of vitamins and multivitamin-mineral formulations was reported by 68,911 individuals to the American Association of Poison Control Centers(nearly 80% of these exposures were in children under the age of 6), leading to 8 "major" life-threatening outcomes and 0 deaths.^[38]

There have been mixed studies on the importance and safety of dietary supplementation. A meta-analysis published in 2006 suggested that Vitamin A and E supplements not only provide no tangible health benefits for generally healthy individuals but may actually increase mortality, although two large studies included in the analysis involved smokers, for which it was already known that beta-carotene supplements can be harmful.^[41] Another study published in May 2009 found that antioxidants such as vitamins C and E may actually curb some benefits of exercise.^[42] While others findings suggest that evidence of Vitamin E toxicity is limited to specific form taken in excess.^[43]

[Nicole730]

Yes, we started giving DS a mulit-vitamin when he could chew them.  I think around 15 months.  He also gets Omega-3 gummies and a Vitamin C.  I pretty much stopped nursing at 14 months because of being pregnant.

[mama Adhiambo]

yes I give my daughter random vitamins. I give them random because I learned in college that your body gets used to having it and it doesn't make as much a difference then. I give my daughter gummie vitamins because it is two a day and then it is absorbed better and then sometimes she will only get one a day also to allow for the randomness. Another reason I like the twice a day ones is because some specific vitamins (ie calcium) your body can only absorb so much at a time.

I decided to start vitamins because my daughter has dark skin and so doesn't get as much vit. D and even though I do breastfeed, vit. D doesn't pass through the milk. (The milk in the store with Vit. D has it artificially put there.) also she was low on iron or something.

[mambera]

No.  I do not believe artificially high doses of individual vitamins and minerals are healthy.  Random supplementation (i.e. not targeted to a specific known deficiency) has no evidence of benefit and may be harmful.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18425980 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17327526

[MusicianDad]

Nope, for the same reason as mambera. We don't believe that any sort of artificial supplements will have any benefit for a healthy individual. We also believe that they may cause illnesses, this comes from the fact that I, personally, will get sick when I take vitamins and won't get better until I stop taking them.

[MrsBone]

I give DS a gummy multi and vit D drops. He weaned at 21 mo. in October due to pregnancy. I only really give him a vitamin B/C he can't tolerate much dairy and grain. I figure he's getting calcium and some other nutrients that he would normally get from grain in the multi. I don't know. I'd love to not have to give him a multi, knowing that he's getting a balanced diet, but like most toddlers, I can really only hide the nutrient rich veggies, spinach, kale, broccoli, etc. He eats cucumbers, carrots occasionally, and avocado without problems, but anything else I have to hide in stuff, which I do do as often as I can.

[Veslemor]

Sometimes.  I used to give a high quality multi and fish oil supplement daily, but I stopped because the kids believed they were candy and the were starting to turn into little junkies.  It just didn't seem like a good idea anymore to give them what they perceived to be a sugary treat everyday.

If you're already making smoothies, then you can avoid all that by slipping things into the smoothies.  I use a green powder (small ammt, start SLOW), and I rotate oils (hempseed, fish oil, other raw awesomeness), raw greens (probably the best vitamin source ever), and sometimes add add'l probiotic powder if it seems like they could use a boost of flora.  That's pretty much what I do for daily (using this word loosely) supplementation.  I do keep some kid's fish oil and kids probiotics and vitamin D around and it's an occasional thing.

I keep some packets of emergen-c around and if it seems like something's coming on, I brew a tea of echinacea and black currant and use the emergen-c as a flavor- and immune- booster in the tea and the kids like it.

Some other reasons I stopped the multi were that even if it's a great organic whole food supplement (expensive and uncommon), it's still a little bizarre to my senses to give my kids something so contrived, processed, and concocted by someone who I don't know anything about.  Also, kids vit's are all sweetened and contain magnesium staerate and other binders and flow agents.  And then there's the question of what are you teaching your kids by passing them this pill everyday as if what you provide is somehow inherently lacking.  So that's why I stopped.

[JudiAU]

I didn't until my almost 2 year old wean. Now we give a daily gummy multivitamin, extra gummy D, and an extra gummy calcium. Either the Whole Foods private label or the Rhino ones. DS loves them; they taste like candy. He eats a really healthy diet but we are very cautious with the son and he doesn't drink cow's milk in any quantity. I figure, maybe, it fills in the holes, but mostly it is an awesome bribe for when I want something done. *sigh*

He also loves to cut them up with his scissors so that is the can helpful in the morning too.

[MrsBone]

just wanted to say that I made a green smoothie yesterday(made it purple with blueberries) and DS drank a few sips. I'm thinking if I just start making these daily, eventually he'll get to like them and eat them. maybe I can ditch the vitamins! I put about 2 cups of spinach, frozen peaches, frozen blueberries, bananas, coconut oil, and a tangerine. Next time I all add flax seed and some other greens to up the nutrient content!

[Veslemor]

 @mama Adhiambo  re: Vitamin D in breastmilk- Dr. Mercola is one of the big vit D guys, and he used to say that same thing- that D doesn't go into breastmilk thus proving that it's meant to be made by each person's body thru sun exposure.  It says that in his book about D too.  But I heard him say in an interview that that is old information, that D wasn't showing up in breastmilk that had been screened so it was assumed that this was the case.  However they discovered that it wasn't in the milk because most people are very deficient.  If a mother has adequate D levels herself, it does show up in the breast milk.

[sunnygir1]

I give my lo's a chewable probiotic most days.  Dd also takes a fish oil capsule -- I've just started giving these to ds, but he doesn't really eat them.

After a hellish month of one virus after another I started giving them:  liquid vitamin D, echinacea tincture, elderberry tincture, and bifidus powder (because their tummies continued to hurt after a stomach bug).

I also give dd a high quality multi sometimes and give both powdered or chewable C, but not daily.

[Veslemor]

I also wanted to add one more thing about smoothies for kids.  I have little smoothie jars for them, and they seem to really like the ceremony of it- especially the part where they get to use a straw.  I just have some used jelly jars that I poked a hole thru the lid (used a hammer and a nail) where the straw goes.  No more spills, so purple mustaches to wash off.  Also, frozen cherries or blueberries really are a big hit in the smoothies for flavor and color.