Vitamins and other nutrients are vital for the optimal development of children, infants especially. With that said, vitamin D is one of the essential nutrients that help with the proper growth of the bones for your kids. In other words, giving your kid the required amount of daily vitamin D intake, it can help prevent health complication such as bone softening, rickets, and later bone fractures. Vitamin D also enables your child to fight off infection by strengthening the immune system.
We get vitamin D from two sources, sunlight and food. The later is limited in foods kids prefer to eat. As a result of this limitation, we as a caregiver will likely have to look for chewable or liquid vitamin D supplements to give your child. Here are a few other reasons other than its limitation in foods your child might need vitamin D supplements:
- You rarely allow your kid outside, which prevents the production of vitamin D from sun rays
- There is limited sunlight where you and your child live
- Your kid naturally wears items of clothing that cover every part of their body, limiting sun rays penetration
- Your toddler is on a vegan diet
- Picky eaters
- Obesity
- Has health conditions that absorb nutrients such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and cystic fibrosis
- Usage of sunscreens which reduces the vitamin’s production by 95%-99% (SPF 8 and 15).
- And most importantly breastfed babies
For breastfed babies, vitamin D supplements are especially vital because they rely on only breast milk to get all the necessary nutrient for their development. Unfortunately, breast milk does not have the required quota of vitamin D (400 IU) an infant needs per. This cause and the fact that babies have limited sun exposure compared to other kids.
Other than these given the situation listed above, you can see why you will have to feed your kids with vitamin D supplements. The supplements are to ensure their body absorbs calcium and phosphorus for healthier and stronger bone development. Simply, these supplements will ensure your child meets the required vitamin D needed for their development.
While you can get this vitamin from foods such as salmon, tuna, sardines, cod-liver oil and egg yolk you can also get from dairy products. Milk is a good source of vitamin D, although its amount is limited. Nonetheless, when getting foods such as these to reach your child’s vitamin D quota, you must read the label for the exact quantity.
Yes, adequate intake of vitamin D will do a lot of good, it is also crucial we watch the intake and avoid feeding our kids excess amount.
Risk of high vitamin D intake for kids
Vitamin D might seem like the ideal nutrient to feed your kids hoping it will make your child’s bone most robust. However, when taken excessively, here are a few health complications that might arise:
Kidney stones: Too much vitamin D in the body could lead to the development of stones in the kidney. This situation occurs when there is an increase in blood calcium levels. Therefore, you must ensure you take it upon yourself to regulate your child’s vitamin intake.
Irregular heartbeat: Another issue that may arise as a result of high vitamin D content in the body is problems with the heart rhythm. The heart doesn’t beat as it usually does or it flow fluctuates.
Nausea, vomiting and poor appetite: This could be caused by high blood calcium levels.
Vitamin D intake is vital; however, due to its limitation in the foods kids choose to eat, it is often limited. This situation brings the need for its supplements which comes in both liquid and chewable form. We recommend the former for breastfed babies and the latter for kids above three.
We do hope the information provided here is helpful. If you think so, hit us in the comment section below, we would love to hear from you.