What are the Best Vitamins for Children?

1. What are the Best Vitamins for Children? In the midst of a global pandemic, the likes of which have not been seen in many decades, the topics of health and nutrition are on people’s minds now more than ever. Inevitably, one of the most common questions is, what do I need to do to have the best chance of staying healthy and avoiding infection? We all know that proper nutrition is extremely important, and that the best source of nutrition is from eating healthy foods. However, we are also constantly bombarded with information regarding the importance of health supplements. As the health supplements field explodes with growth, one area that is often overlooked is children's vitamins. So, what is the best vitamin for kids? That's a very difficult question to answer because there's so many different brands out there it can make your head spin. First, let's clarify what we mean by a kid's or children's vitamin. Most of us remember Flinstones vitamins from when we were kids. They were kind of like Pez candy in look and taste, and also in nutritional value. Fast-forward all these years later, and children's multivitamins have not really improved much. Most stores are packed with gummy vitamins for children that provide almost no nutritional value whatsoever, or close to it. Most of us buy these vitamins because they’re quick and easy to grab, they’re cheap, and they can’t possibly be bad for our kids, right? However, time and again basic research has shown that most of these “vitamins” are really nothing more than overpriced candy. When you look in the places we most commonly shop for kids multivitamins, the shelves are stocked with all sorts of brands that we assume are good, but once you start reading the label you find that they contain minimal nutritional value. Online options are similar, though the options are somewhat better. Amazon is by far the largest market for children’s vitamins, and many of them claim to provide the best vitamin for children, but when you look deeper it quickly becomes apparent that they are often very poor-quality supplements. All of this is to say, that when it comes to trying to name the best kid’s multivitamin, it is not an easy thing to do. It is more reasonable to point to some of the things to look for in a good children’s vitamin. For instance, I think a good starting point is to make sure that a potential candidate at least has the basic recommended daily intake of vitamins C and D. These are two critically important vitamins for our children’s growth, development and immune systems. Another important consideration is the trust of the brand. Is it a brand you know and are comfortable with? Do they make their products in FDA approved factories, using strict regulatory guidelines? Or are they made in another country where you have no idea what the safety and compliance regulations are like? I’m from the USA, so I prefer a brand that makes its children’s vitamins in the USA. Research has shown that probiotics can be a great tool in promoting optimal gut health, even in children. For that reason, I also like a vitamin for kids that contains probiotics. This significantly limits the options, as a quick Amazon search will only produce two or three results for vitamins for children that contain probiotics. Finally, and of less importance, I do believe it is important to find a vitamin for kids that they can tolerate, in terms of taste. Unfortunately, because we have become so used to giving our children candy in place of vitamins, it can be a difficult adjustment for a child to get used to a real vitamin with real benefits. However, there are vitamins out there that have struck the right balance between a reasonable taste, and the much more important health benefit of the vitamin. Ultimately, finding the best vitamin for kids is about what works best for the individual child and parents. This article has provided some of the important things to look for, but in the end, each child and family have different needs, which will drive their decision in what is the best vitamin for children in their family.