Children Have Special Vitamin Needs

Eating a nutritionally balanced diet is important for children as well as adults. In fact, teaching children to make the right food choices is one of the best tools you can give them. Unfortunately, many children today aren't taught how to maike good food choices because their parents don't know or don't practice the 'right' food choices themselves.

There's no denying that the vitamins and minerals children need to grow 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? 

Most children, and far too many adults prefer food such as 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-through fast food.

Of course if you look at the food pyramid for healthy eating, these types of foods are represented as a small fraction of the food one should eat. The healthier fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and dairy should be a more significant part of the total food intake. It's obvious just by looking at today's children that many are not eating properly.

It is incredible to think that with all of the food choices available, many children are actually malnourished. Not only are the wrong food choices causing children to be dangerously overweight, they are also the reason 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 or supplentation. 

Beginning with the first days of life, a child must have adequate ammounts of Vitamin D. Vitamin D is crucial to the development of healthy, strong teeth and bones. Rickets, a disease once thought to be under control, is again becoming a serious health issue. Symptoms of this preventable disease include bones that are deformed, 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. Other crucial body parts such as wrists, ribs, knees, ankles all may experience abnormal growth.

While a Vitamin D deficiency can be the scariest and most obvious, a number of other problems may occur. Because other vitamin deficiencies may not produce such obvious effects, many parents may not even realize when a problem exists. 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 less-desirable foods mentioned above, you need to take immediate action. Start by introducing vitamin-dense foods into the diet. In the meantime, have 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.