Pediatric Multivitamins and Vitamin A

[ArmyMedic1219]

If your child takes a multi vitamin be careful about the vitamin A levels. All multivitamin's list vitamin A under international units (IU). The world health organization (WHO) recommend a MAXIMUM allowance of 900 micrograms (mcg for children's 4-8, the daily recommendation (RDA) is 400 mcg. A good thing to note is that the FDA and WHO have different brackets for different age groups so be sure to check the limits for your child's age.

To know exactly how much vitamin A your child is receiving you need to convert the IU to mcg. . To do that you need to know what vitamin A the multivitamin brand used. Most children's vitamin use retinol . To convert, you take the IU listed and multiply by 0.3 ... That will give you the microgram amount to compare to the world health recommendation.

The only child's vitamin I have found that does not have too much vitamin A was Flintstones complete! However I know that there are many organic multivitamins that use beta-carotene as the Vitamin A source instead of retinol. Beta carotene wont be converted to vitamin A in the body if there is already and abundance.

Most U.S children receive too much vitamin A which by the way is toxic to the liver. If your child is just taking a multivitamin that is a little over the limit (between 100-300mcg over) for an extended period of time, this could lead to long term affects like decreased bone density, liver damage, Skin irritation, pain in the joints, and worse depending on the levels over time.

Just thing if your child is eating a balanced diet and taking a multivitamin, then the chances of exceeding the tolerable upper intake of 900 mcg for a 4-8 year old is high.

Vit A is found in carrots, lettuce, sweet potatoe, red bell peppers, kale, basil, tomato, peaches and others.

If they eat items with vit A and then take a multi then chances are they are getting too much vit A.

A high percentage of children in the U.S who take a multivitamin and eat a balanced diet may actually be taking too much Vitamin A which could be a bad thing.

What is shameful is that these companies are making children vitamins with vit A as retinol or palmatate rather then with beta carotene which is the vit A form in prenatal. They put that form in prenatal vitamins because if the body receive too much vit A then the body just doesn't covert the beta carotene to vitamin A and it prevents the risk of miscarriage, birth defects, ect. due to too much vit A,

So why not put the form in ALL Kids Vitamins!!! This makes me wish the FDA regulated vitamins!

Vitamin A is fat soluble so it is absorbed in the liver.

The link below is by far the best article I found on Vitamin A relating to children and it gives you the conversions for all the different forms of Vit. A!

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/