Food supplements for children - (not) a good idea?!
Many parents are concerned about their children's dietary preferences: their offspring enjoy eating pasta or chips, but often grimace at carrots or broccoli - regardless of the fact that vegetables and fruit are important components of a healthy nutrition and essential for an adequate supply of vitamins, minerals and other valuable substances.
Food supplements offer a seemingly simple solution in such situations: the missing vitamins and minerals are administered in the form of pills or drops; this soothes the conscience of sometimes desperate parents. A large number and variety of such products are available, including those specially tailored to the target group of children. Advertising implies that food supplements can not only compensate for a supposed lack of nutrients, but also have a positive effect on health, such as strengthening the immune system, promoting performance or generally favouring growth and development.
According to the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), such supplements are unnecessary for healthy people, with a few exceptions. They are also no substitute for a balanced and varied diet. This applies to adults as well as to children.
Children in Germany are adequately supplied with most nutrients. However, food supplements for this target group in particular are often very high in dosage, and there are currently no binding provisions for maximum levels of vitamins, minerals or other substances in food supplements. There is also a lack of reliable data on the health safety of some of the substances used. This applies in particular to many other substances with a nutritional or physiological effect that are added to certain food supplements.
If there is concern that the supply of nutrients might not be sufficient, this should be clarified by a physician before the child is given food supplements independently.