Joanne Roach (00:13)
Hello and welcome to the Food for Kids podcast. I'm Joanne from the Foodies. Today is the second part of our two-parter about vitamins and supplements for children. In the last episode, we talked through the basic UK government guidelines for average families in average times. So that was the guidelines for vitamins A, C and D for babies and children. So you haven't listened to that one, I highly recommend going back to check that one out first as the advice is the broad government advice for everyone.
But all families have phases where life doesn't feel particularly normal or average, and some families have additional issues to deal with all the time. So today we're going to look at a couple of different scenarios that you may have been mulling over when you were listening to the general guidelines in the last episode. As I said on that episode, there is so much information about and lots of it is schilling product and not necessarily well evidenced. So I wanted to ask an actual dietitian who has to work within proper evidence-based guidelines to untangle some of that noise for us.
So this episode today is part of that same interview with dietitian Sara Dawson, who is a highly specialist allergy dietitian, both in the NHS and in her private practice YNRD. As in the last episode, her advice is for general information purposes only. It's to give you some information about the UK recommendations. It does not replace the need to get personalised advice for your child from a GP or dietitian if you have any concerns. But hopefully these two episodes will give you a sensible starting point to cut through the online noise. So let's get to the second part of the interview.
Joanne Roach (01:45)
Now thinking about families who've got other issues to think about. So if you've got a child who's going through a period of being really quite picky, or if your family's going through a difficult time and you've got that sinking feeling that you probably haven't been providing as balanced a range of food as you normally do... you know you've just got that feeling about it. Should you think about a multivitamin as a backup during those periods or is there anything in a multivitamin that could cause you harm if you don't need it?
Sara Dawson (02:08)
Yeah, and I think multivitamins actually have a really good place here because obviously this can be a difficult question because obviously I can't see this person we've just made up's diet and as a dietitian I would rather look through it all before I can answer that. However, if we're talking in general and you're really aware that you're moving house and you've been living off takeaways because it's been delayed and your kitchen's all packed up or things like that - not there's anything wrong with takeaways - but if you're finding you're not getting the nice variety in that you would like for you and your family in this short period of time you're just not managing it, a multivitamin can be a great way to try and get those things in. It's not necessarily the answer to keeping the diet well balanced and having everything in it but it can certainly help. What I would say is if if it's a couple of weeks it probably won't make that much difference anyway but there will be no harm in doing that. It's more if you're starting to want to supplement things long term where there must be a reason why you're wanting to supplement that. Either it's because you're not getting everything in and you're struggling with that in which case you should probably seek some support or you're doing it because you think you should be and you might find that it's just expensive wee.
The things that I would consider in multivitamins we want to be aware of overdose. And with the water soluble vitamins, that's less of a concern, like I say, but with the fat soluble vitamins, we store them. So vitamins A, D, E and K, we store them in our body. So it's much easier to get to toxic levels with those. So again, it's not something you should just be doing long term outside of the government recommendations or outside of what a health professional has recommended. And also we touched on iron earlier as well. You don't want to be going above those levels.
Joanne Roach (03:50)
Yeah, we talked about iron in the part of the interview that's going to go into episode one, so listeners can refer back to that episode for that. So for multivitamins, really, you would see them as just for a short period, a few weeks or months where there's a bit of upheaval going on or when your child's going through a phase or so on. But in general life, most children don't need multivitamins and families can just stick to the ones you said in the first episode, the ones from the government guidelines. So the vitamin D alone or the vitamins A, C and D depending on the age of the child. So listeners who don't need extra help can go back and just check those guidelines in the last episode.
Joanne Roach (04:28)
And for children who are in either plant-based families or families who can't eat a lot of dairy or eggs because of allergies, so they have already got some things taken out of their diet, are there extra considerations to take into account?
Sara Dawson (04:39)
Definitely, and this is a massive part of my job as an allergy dietitian, most families that come to me have something out of their diet. And there's absolutely ways around that. So if we're talking about plant-based diets and vegan diets, we're gonna need to be looking at what's been taken out and how we can replace that either within the foods that they're eating already or supplemented. Quite often, vegan diets do need to be supplemented and that's absolutely fine. I've got no problem with that whatsoever. It's just about making sure that balance is there.
So with vegan diets, obviously you've taken meat out. So meat is a good source of iron. You can absolutely get iron from plant-based foods, but the availability of that iron can be harder to absorb. So iron is one thing that you would look at doesn't mean you have to supplement it and being able to absorb iron easier you could pair it with vitamin C.
Vegan families will have taken fish out of the diet which is therefore taking the omega-3 out of the diet. The plant-based sources you can get of the Omegas is algae oil. For the Omegas there's DHA and EPA. And those you can get from algae oil. And studies have shown that actually the of that is just as good as well. And that's actually where fish get their Omegas from. It's from the algae. And then other sources are flaxseeds, hempseeds, walnuts. So if you're finding algae oil is expensive or not available or tricky to get your child to eat, - sometimes it can still be a bit fishy even though it's not fish - there are other vegetarian sources. But that source, the flaxseed, the hempseed, the walnuts, then in your body needs to be converted into EPA and DHA, which is absolutely fine but obviously it just means you need to have more of it because some gets lost along the way to put it simply.
And then when you're taking dairy out you need to be considering obviously protein, energy, things like that, make sure that you're replacing appropriately, obviously depending on the child's age. But also if we talk about micronutrients, calcium is a very important one. Calcium is fortified in so many dairy alternatives now, it's brilliant. And iodine as well, if you're a family that aren't eating fish, then I suggest that you try and opt for a dairy alternative milk, for example, that has iodine in. Or again, if you're taking a supplement, make sure that's got iodine in.
And B12 as well is really important for those families that are having non-animal products. Obviously, there's lots of allergies in the world and I could go on forever about all the different foods that have come out and how we could replace them. But those are some of the key things that spring to mind as you ask that question.
Joanne Roach (07:10)
Okay, great. I get my B12 from nutritional yeast.
Sara Dawson (07:13)
Yeah, yeah exactly. There's so many things that are fortified with all these things you don't necessarily be needing to take a supplement but it just depends on your diet.
Joanne Roach (07:23)
And finally, we see a lot of things advertised now that seem less to be about children's physical wellness or illnesses and more about their behaviour, such as magnesium will help them sleep or B12 will give them more energy. Are any of these helpful?
Sara Dawson (07:37)
I find these things very frustrating because it feels to me a lot of this is money making. So the theory behind magnesium being helpful with sleep, for example, we'll start there, is related to its role in neurotransmitters, GABA, which can help relax you and also its role in melatonin production, melatonin being a hormone that go into that phase of sleep, part of your circadian rhythm. So the theory comes from that, but there just aren't the studies to say that it helps children with sleep. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't have studies. I absolutely would love to see these studies. But what I find really frustrating is that people are selling things before those studies are there. If we've got a well-balanced diet and we're not deficient in that nutrient there's nothing to indicate that taking more of that will be helpful like I say with the water soluble vitamins we pee them out and the fat soluble ones we store them which might help later down the line if we're unwell but can lead to toxic levels so… No I think, if your child is struggling with sleep, then you need to be seeking for some support sleep isn't my specialist area, but nutrition is and I wouldn't normally recommend magnesium.
Joanne Roach (08:450
So all their bedtime routines, look at all the things that going on in their before you start whacking in a magnesium supplement when you've got no reason to think they're deficient.
Sara Dawson (08:56)
Exactly. And there is professional help there as well. sometimes sleep disturbances or difficulty with sleep is related to neurodivergence, you know, so yeah, a supplement is very unlikely to be the answer. And also supplementing with magnesium can cause like gastrointestinal upset, so diarrhoea, really, and that's not going to help bedtime, is it? If that's happening.
Joanne Roach (09:17)
No, no, that's fair.
Sara Dawson (09:23)
In order to answer your question on B12, I know that B12 injections for adults has become a massive craze. I haven't seen them being pushed in children and I really hope that that doesn't happen because that would be worrying. But again, yes, if we're deficient in B12, then we will feel tired. You know, it's really important part of our nervous system. And you know, if you're getting pins and needles and things like that, if you're getting symptoms of B12 deficiency, go to your doctor, get a blood test and then you can literally get a B12 injection for free on the NHS, once you've got those results to show that you're low in B12. B12 deficiency, so it's called pernicious anaemia, so where your haemoglobin is low and your B12 levels are low, is really rare in children and actually in adults and there are serious concerns if you are low. So definitely if you're concerned, get a blood test.
Sara Dawson (10:15)
But adding extra vitamins on is pointless. Don't waste your time. If you don't need it, don't take the risk. We can get it from our diet really easily. The only thing, like I said, if you're vegan you can take that as an oral supplement or, like you say, from nutritional yeast. You don't need to be getting expensive injections from wellness places.
Joanne Roach (10:36)
So basically I think your overall message is that for, regular children in an average family with an average diet, we just need to be looking at those vitamin D drops for babies, A, C and D for toddlers up to preschool and then from sort of five onwards, vitamin D in the winter and maybe all year round depending on your lifestyle and whether you wear sun cream all year round and so on. Like everybody should be considering those things. If you're in a period of some kind of flux, maybe consider a short term multivitamin, but it's not a thing you need to take all the time. If you've got a special diet consider getting some help to work out what you need. if you're noticing some symptoms in your child, don't jump to a supplement without finding out what the cause of it is because you could be doing more harm than good.
Sara Dawson (11:15)
Exactly.
Joanne Roach (11:20)
So that's the end of our two-parter on supplements. I hope it's reassured you that you probably don't need as many expensive products as your social media feeds would have you believe and that it's generally better to ask for advice about odd concerns and symptoms rather than trying to find a supplement as a solution without knowing what the cause is.
As I said on the last episode, your child and your family are individual, so the guidelines are just there to give you an evidence-based starting point. If you have any concerns about your child, you should always go and see your GP or a properly qualified children's food professional like Sara. I'll link to Sara's Instagram and website in the show notes and I'll also link to the find a dietitian page on the British Dietetic Association's website if you want to find an in-person appointment locally. But hopefully this broad conversation will have been some help.
February is a short month and we're getting near to the end already. So I'll be back next week with my end of month roundup of ways to store, freeze and use up different fruit and veg. This time it will be cabbages and other brassicas. So I hope to see you then and in the meantime, happy eating.
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