Does My Child Need a Multivitamin?

Dr. Kia Nelson: Does my child or teen need multivitamin? As a practicing pediatrician, I am always talking about nutrition at my visits, and my patients and their families consistently come with great questions about their child’s diet.

I’m Dr. Kia Nelson at Sauk Prairie Healthcare’s Wisconsin Heights Clinic and in this video, I’ll cover what to consider to ensure your child has a healthy diet and when a multivitamin may be needed.

Here’s the lowdown. Generally, most healthy kids do not need a daily multivitamin. If you are able to eat a healthy, varied diet with at least some fruits, veggies, dairy, whole grains, and protein, then you should be able to get all of your necessary vitamins and minerals needed for your child’s body to grow and to thrive.

This may not happen every single day. As we know, our spirited toddlers may eat a lot one day and only bites the next. But overall, we should be getting multiple servings of each of these food groups throughout the week.

Continue to offer preferred and non-preferred foods to your child every day so they can slowly warm up to different foods and maybe feel comfortable to take a bite of broccoli on the ninth or tenth try.

Although most children do not require a daily multivitamin, there are certain times when I do recommend a vitamin. This is usually in situations when a child has a restricted diet, meaning they do not regularly get all of the food groups into their meals each week. This can be due to limited preferences or a picky diet, food allergies or intolerances to foods, family lifestyle choices, or chronic health conditions. In these cases, I will often recommend either a general multivitamin or a specific supplement to make sure that child is getting all of the nutrition they need.

Additionally, infants have different nutritional needs than kids, so we do counsel them a little bit differently. All breastfeeding babies require 400 international units of vitamin D supplementation daily for the first year of life since, although breast milk is amazing, it is lacking an adequate amount of vitamin D. Premature infants will also need close monitoring of their nutrition and will be usually followed closely by their pediatrician or a dietitian.

If your child falls into one of these categories mentioned above, then you should check with your pediatrician so they can help guide you on what vitamins your child needs and how much of them your child should take. This is important since it is possible for your child to take too much of certain vitamins and supplements, which could be harmful for their health. So it is best to consult with your doctor.

If you found this video helpful, please like and share with your friends. And if you’re looking for a doctor for your child, come see us here at Wisconsin Heights Clinic.