The Issue of 'Complete' Vitamins

Many parents give their kids vitamins each day, even though the American Academy of Pediatrics, in their 'Guide to Your Child's Nutrition,' advises that "healthy children do not need vitamin supplements to make up for nutrients lacking in their food," that "it is always better to get vitamins from food than in pill form," and "what's important is that the average food consumption over a week or two includes a variety of foods to provide all the essential vitamins."

Our own vitamin poll had over 50% of parents giving their kids a daily multivitamin. Unfortunately, the AAP also says that "the vitamin supplements available in pills are incomplete," so giving a vitamin may not even be helping the kids who actually need a supplement to their diet.

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Background

How can 'complete' multivitamins be incomplete and be harmful? Take for example, children who don't drink milk or eat dairy products and often don't get enough calcium in their diet. Parents of these children might feel comfortable giving their children a 'complete' multivitamin to make up for this lack of calcium in their children's diet, after all, if a multivitamin says that it is 'complete,' then it should have everything your child needs in it, right?

Wrong! The average 'complete' multivitamin only has about 6 to 10% of a child's daily requirement for calcium. Without further supplements, these children may have problems caused by this calcium deficiency in thier diet.

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