Should you take supplements for children or minor illnesses?

This is an automatically translated article.

The article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Vu Quoc Anh - Pediatrician - Department of Pediatrics - Neonatology, Vinmec Danang International General Hospital.

Children often have minor illnesses that can affect the overall development of children such as weight and height. Therefore, many parents choose tonics to supplement nutrients for their children with the desire to help them develop more comprehensively. However, not all drugs are suitable, in many cases should not be used for children. So should parents use tonics for children or minor illnesses? and sick children should supplement what?

1. Supplements for children who are often sick

Children are considered sick when they are sick almost every month and often have to take medicine for treatment. You can blame this situation on the body of the child, but in fact, children often get sick for a reason.
The first reason why children often get sick is because the child's immune system is weak due to infectious diseases, or because the child takes a lot of antibiotics... The second reason is because the child is deficient in micronutrients. nutrition due to inadequate diet.
Supplements are actually just vitamins and minerals to supplement for children to make up for the lack of food in the diet, to help improve the ability to digest and absorb substances, so that the child's body is balanced and healthy. and can stimulate appetite, eat better.
Vitamins are extremely important ingredients for children's activities and development. Vitamin deficiency is one of the main reasons why children are often sick, stunted and seriously affect their health, especially in the stages of body and brain development.
Vitamins are organic compounds that we cannot synthesize on our own (except vitamin D). They are present in food in small quantities, have a completely different structure from glucid, protid and lipid but are essential for a number of metabolic reactions to help maintain normal growth and life of the body. Depending on the type of vitamin deficiency, the child's body will manifest with different specific diseases.
Based on water-soluble or fat-soluble properties, vitamins are classified into 2 groups: fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E, K...) and water-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E, K...) as B vitamins such as B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B8, B9, B12 and vitamin C).

2. Children who are often sick should supplement what?

According to nutrition experts, in order to solve the situation of children who are sick or anorexic, the first thing to do is to strengthen the immune system and improve the child's resistance. At the same time, overcoming anorexia and anorexia to help children fully absorb nutrients through daily meals.
Depending on the gender and stage of development of the child, vitamin needs are very different. Therefore, choosing vitamin supplements for children is not simple. Vitamin deficiencies have many different causes and it is possible to be deficient in several vitamins at the same time. Therefore, in the treatment of children with anorexia nervosa, it is necessary to find the cause and combine many different vitamins.
Because the body of children as well as adults cannot synthesize vitamins on their own (except when bathing, sun exposure is suitable to convert pre-vitamin D into vitamin D), we need to eat a full and balanced diet. to get enough vitamins every day.
However, in some cases where a child is not getting enough vitamins from their diet, a supplement may be necessary.
For children who are malnourished, slow to grow or after an illness (infection, cough, asthma, diarrhea, etc.), taking vitamin supplements is essential. For a normal child, if the child still eats properly, is adequate and the child's health status is normal, vitamin supplements are not required. However, vitamins in food are easily lost or severely reduced in a full meal, but the quality of the food is not guaranteed (such as wilted vegetables, no longer fresh fruit will lose a lot of vitamin C). ). Therefore, many times doctors still advise healthy children to take vitamin supplements. For obese children, doctors often recommend that children eat a low-fat diet and it is necessary to supplement vitamins, because a low-fat diet does not help children absorb enough fat-soluble vitamins. vitamins A, D, E, K.

It should be noted that the use of vitamin supplements for children cannot replace food, but still, children must eat enough and balance food groups. In vitamins, vitamin A and vitamin D are not used in excess, if taken in excess, they will accumulate in the body and can cause poisoning.
If you give your child a multivitamin (multivitamin) to take 1 tablet a day, it must not contain more than 5,000IU of vitamin A and not more than 400IU of vitamin D. If you give your child an oral solution, you must take the number of drops. or volume (number of ml) exactly as prescribed by your doctor or dosage instructions on the product label.
Should give your child a liquid supplement such as an oral solution because it is both easy to swallow and easy to absorb. Vitamin C should not be given to children at too high a dose (more than 1g/day) because it can cause diarrhea, gastrointestinal ulcers, and kidney stones when used for a long time.
To have more knowledge about raising children and taking care of children by age, you should regularly visit the website https://vinmec.com and make an appointment with the leading doctors, pediatric specialists - Nutrition when visiting the website https://vinmec.com need advice.