Monday, September 21, 2009

Should Children Take Vitamins? Are There Possible Dangers?

Over the years, there has been much controversy over whether or not children should take vitamins. It is the opinion of some that the necessary vitamins can be taken in through a proper diet that has a good nutritional balance. Unfortunately, this is not always the case in today's busy world. Vitamins that are found naturally in many foods have been depleted of much of their nutritional value by being processed, frozen, and cooked. Vitamins are important for the health of all people, but especially important for growing children.

Are There Possible Dangers?

There are very few dangers to giving children vitamins. The biggest dangers actually come from mismanagement of vitamins. While quite healthy for the body in the proper amounts, it is never good to exceed the recommended dosage of vitamins, especially in children. With the variety of candy colored, cartoon character shaped chewable vitamins available for kids, it's important that the bottle containing them is stored well out of the reach of children. Often, children will think that their daily multi-vitamin is candy, and will want to take more than one, especially if they can sneak a few out of the bottle without Mom knowing!. An overdose of vitamins can cause a vast variety of health problems and other symptoms as well as long term damage to vital organs.

Overdoses of most vitamins are almost unheard of, and are avoidable simply by following the instructions on the bottle. It is never a good idea to increase the dose of vitamins you are taking past the recommended limit unless you are instructed to do so by your doctor for some medically necessary reason. More often than not, the opposite will be true, where children risk growing up without the full dose of essential vitamins.