Dangerous Ingredients in Your Child’s Multi?

It is a reasonable expectation that Children’s multivitamins be a source of nutrition for those times when fussy eating habits or illness affects their health.

Unfortunately, it seems the market is flooded with kids supplements that contain potentially dangerous ingredients as well as heaps of sugar.

The sad truth is that the vitamins and minerals present in the majority of retail supplements (and most of these nutrients are in poorly absorbed forms anyway) will probably only be used to detoxify the “fillers”.

Besides Nutrients, What Else Commonly Appears in Multivitamins?

• Aspartame
• Saccharin
• Artificial colours and flavours
• Preservatives
• Bulking Agents
• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
• and the list goes on…

A significant percentage of commercially available children’s multivitamins are poorly manufactured.  It is cheaper to use crude forms of nutrients that are not absorbed well.

Furthermore, as kids can be the fussiest of consumers, a host of ingredients are used to sweeten the product to ensure it resembles a “lolly”.

Many of these extra nasties have been shown to cause neurological dysfunction and even symptoms of allergy.

So let’s look closer at some of the widely available kids multivitamins:

Centrum Kids Complete – The ingredient list doesn’t begin well.   The key ingredient listed (and therefore present in the highest amount in this formula) is Sucrose. Aka Sugar.

Then reading down the label you find that this chewy tablet also contains Aspartame, and many of the artificial colours linked to ADHD and allergies. On top of this, most of the nutrients are in poorly absorbable forms anyway.

Natures Way Kids Smart Multi – The excipients here consist of glucose (sugar), sucrose (sugar), invert sugar (a mixture of glucose and fructose, sugar), sorbitol (sugar alcohol), and hydroxy benzoate (paraben – linked with cancer and may mimic hormonal effects).

Hmmm  – A Multi that may be less vitamin and more chemical sweetener.

Getting kids to take supplements can be difficult however that does not justify regularly and generously sprinkling the multi with sugar.  The well-intentioned parent is often just administering a piece of chemical filled candy.

Read on for Emed’s Tips for Getting Kids to Take Their Supplements.

Emed Recommends:

Supporting your child with a good diet, fresh air and sunshine, exercise, love and care along with nutritional insurance in the form of Emed’s Best Kids Multis.

What Else Can I Do?

Your homework. Looking at the labels of your multivitamins and indeed most packaged goods is important.

Checking and double checking all labels can, however, get overwhelming.

Particularly when most of the ingredients have long, confusing names that sound like something you would learn about in a course on Biochemistry.

It can all seem a bit like a chemical maze sometimes…

Luckily, The Chemical Maze Shopping Companion 4th edition continues to be the book of choice when it comes to providing consumers with easily understood information on the potential health effects of food additives and ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products.

This latest edition is fully revised and updated with over 400 new entries.

Arm yourself with this handy pocket sized book next time you hit the health food store, chemist or supermarket and find out what you are really buying.

Further Reading