Cod liver oil; do you or don't you?

[bishop]

Mini Bishops are 3y and 17mo. Family all think cod liver oil is The Answer To All Ills, I was under the impression that it was a bit of a no-no to give it to young children

Thoughts?

(Pages 'Saffron' to this thread...)

[susyp]

interested in this thread given that my daughter has been consistently ill since the weather turned.... what do we give our children to boost their immunity?!

agree - saffron?!

susypx

[minder]

How about malt extract? A bit sweeter on the taste buds but still contains cod liver oil.

I used to love this as a child and remember my Mum buying jars and sisters and me would dig in with our spoons!

[Strawbs]

My gp has put mini strawbs on vitamin drops due to a restricted diet for allergy reasons, this might also help stave off illnesses? I can dig out the name for you tomorrow if interested x

[susyp]

yes that would be great - we use the vit c chewy ones but be v interested in what gp has recommended you use - we only have neocate and even that is becoming an issue now that she is 4 1/2 = gp registrar actually rang me to question the prescription as said most children grow out of milk allergy by 1 or 2 (ie were we sure she was still allergic as in her view she couldn't be ..... MORON).

susypx

[Jessie]

We use floradex for the occasional boost

[Fuschia]

Abidec?

[bishop]

We do give the children Abidec already, and the vitamin drops the HV gives you when they're babies, so we're covered on that front...

[Saffron]

Well, you've already gotten some excellent replies (hurray for the Family Room!)... but if you want my 2 cents, here it is: There is no such thing as anything that Cures All Ills.

If there is a reason to believe that your children are lacking in a key nutrient(s), then specific supplements might be beneficial. Personally, I would look for fatty acid supplements from a vegetarian souce, not cod liver oil. It cannot be guaranteed that cod liver oil is 100% free of chemicals with which the fish have come in contact. This is something about which I would personally be very conservative, although others might be more relaxed. Meh. It's probably up for debate. What's not up for debate is that the essential fatty acids that are derived from cods' livers can also be obtained from vegetable sources.

You need to make sure supplements are age appropriate. Cod liver oil for adults and older children could have far, far too much vitamin A and D in it for young children, toddlers, and babies. A&D are not water soluable. Excess supplementation cannot be eliminated through urine, and could gradually build up to harmful levels if chronically oversupplemented.

However (much to the irritation of parents of fussy eaters), dietitians will almost always recommend that it's better for your children to get their nutrients from whole foods rather than supplements.

Dr Alex Richardson has an excellent book on nutrition called They Are What You Feed Them. He writes about diet, supplements, and specific benefits of different nutrients in different scenarios. The book is not long or complicated, and its writing style is informative without being patronising. I think my copy is on loan at the moment, but actually I would recommend buying it as it's not expensive and will make a good reference book for your child's nutritional needs as s/he grows. http://www.amazon.co.uk/They-Are-What-Feed-Them/dp/0007182252 . You could also check the library? xx

[GinaG3]

I'm about to dose my daughter up with sambucol for kids after 4 weeks off school and constant cold since starting preschool in September. We used to have it as kids and rarely got ill. I'm out to try anything, our daughter has had multivitamin since birth with degree of benefit between brands best being abidec until I noticed it contained peanut oil so stopped using it. Right now we are using the new haliborange immune boost chews. There is never a cure all though, I have to agree with that.

[Saffron]

Here's one area where advice on specific supplementation becomes rather interesting: Vitamin D.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20710026

There is growing awareness about the importance of the "sunshine vitamin" - vitamin D - for health.

But Professor Mitch Blair, from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, says more action is needed - potentially including fortifying more foods and even cutting the cost of the vitamin to make it more easily available,

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that contributes to healthy, strong bones and helps to control the amount of calcium in the blood.

Unlike many other vitamins, getting your recommended daily amount of vitamin D is not that easy.

The main source is sunlight; but with short days, long nights and limited sunlight even during the summer, it's not easy to get your fix that way.

Vitamin D can be found in some foods such as oily fish, eggs and mushrooms - but only 10% of a person's recommended daily amount is found naturally in food.

Put bluntly, eating more fish and getting out in the sun a bit more won't make much of a difference to your vitamin D levels.

Unfortunately, there is limited national research on the true extent of vitamin D deficiency in the UK population.

But we do know that there has been a four-fold increase in admissions to hospital with rickets in the last 15 years and that some groups are more 'at risk' than others - namely children, pregnant women and certain ethnic minority groups.

. . . . .

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends supplements for pregnant or breastfeeding women and their children from six months to four years.

The Chief Medical Officer recommends supplements for children up to the age of five and the government's Healthy Start programme provides vitamins free for people on income support.

So, indeed, many of us may have good cause to supplement with vitamin D.

More info here... http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/news/vitamin_d

[susyp]

My mum has a severe vitamin d deficiency and is using a sun lamp, as many of the supplements have quite bad side effects.

Shove the little ones outside as much as possible!

Susypx

[Sol]

I give mine Sambucol and Manuka honey 18plus. I think you can't give Sambucol to under 3. Manuka honey is expensive but worth it. Honey shouldn't be given to Children under 1.

[WorkingMummy]

I think in Sweden vitamin D is added to all fresh milk, because of the low sunlight levels. Much as folic acid is added to bread.

We should do that here in the Uk. If you live north of about Birmingham, I think it is, you'll struggle ever to make much vitamin D in your skin.

Not an immediately helpful suggestion, I realise...

[JulieP]

In the winter months in the UK the UV wavelengths (from the sun) are not the appropriate length for synthesis of vitamin D through the skin. Therefore, getting out in the summer months (only needs to be 15 minutes between 10am and 3pm, only 20% of the skin exposed) should be sufficient although those with darker skin may need more. However, supplementation in the winter may be worthwhile.

[Saffron]

One thing the above article is saying though, is that it's sometimes more complicated than that. We had a rainy/cloudy summer in the UK this year. Even many of the days in which people were outdoors, the amount of light actually reaching through the cloud cover may be insufficient, combined with the fact that many people spent more time indoors over the summer than previously.

And it isn't always darker skinned people who need more exposure to UV. If you're very fair skinned and need to cover-up and/or wear sunscreen, then you're also missing out on critical UV exposure for vitamin D synthsis. On this point, interesting that the above article highlights that vitamin D is also low in the general Australian population, where there is plenty of sunshine.

WorkingMummy, vitamin D is also supplemented in many brands of milk in the States. This makes sense for two reasons: (a) helps prevent vitamin D dificiency, and (b) facilitates calcium absorbtion. The article suggestes this is being considered in the UK as well.

[Saffron]

Back to the codliver oil... hmmm. Personally I would go for an age appropriate specific vit-D supplement or general multivitamin.

If you're giving cod liver oil plus any other supplement, you need to be very, very careful that you're not over-supplementing with vitamin A (or D), which has toxic side-effects.

[JulieP]

The point I was trying to make that was however much you go outside at the moment, it will not impact on vit D synthesis. I also was conscious not to advocate too much sun exposure in the summer - for obvious reasons.

[DaveR]

I've never given either of my kids any supplements of any sort. They have a good diet, and the evidence for any beneficial effects of further supplements appears to be very thin. Conversely, I think that by routinely giving supplements there is a risk of 'medicalising' everyday life i.e. encouraging the belief that taking pills every day is normal and helpful, which I think is undesirable.

It looks like I'm in the minority though.

[Saffron]

No, DaveR, I totally agree with you! As I stated above "dietitians will almost always recommend that it's better for your children to get their nutrients from whole foods rather than supplements".

However, that's what makes Vit-D supplementation so interesting, because you cannot simply attain an adequate level of vit-D through diet alone, if you fall into one of the many categories of individuals who by the nature of their circumstances are necessarily excessively low in Vit-D.

This is due to the fact that the main source (90%) of vit-D is UV exposure of the skin, not dietary.

Conversely, you don't have to supplement with Vit-D orally. You could use a sun lamp instead.

[WorkingMummy]

I agree with DaveR too. And both my little girls (who look like they could have originated in sweden, they are so fair) are slightly tanned all summer because they are out a LOT in the fresh air and I tell nanny to go easy on the sunscreen (ie not at all before 10:30 or after 4:30 and not ever unless will be outside for more than about 15 minutes at one time) so that they get plenty of not too strong light to make up for our awful summers and long winters.

But as with EVERYthing in this child rearing game, poor old nanny gets a lot of "tut-tuts" over this and several of my friends comment frequently that my LOs look a bit too brown to be healthy. (Exact opposite of what my mother faced in her day BTW: "that child is too pale"!!)

[susyp]

it is difficult to get enough vit d. My mum is a keen gardener, however obviously older, and quite dark skinned, with a very limited diet due to ibs - so she only gets it from being outside. And yet she has chronic deficiency - obviously in winter it is hard to get outside- but it does show how easy it is to get deficient and i imagine a lot of people have a mild deficiency. It's definitely made me think more about trying to get my daughter outside for longer periods.

Also we were told face and arms need to be exposed in order to soak up the vit d - so obviously in winter that is difficult. Interestingly my parents have always been very critical of me smothering my daughter in sunscreen (she is a red head!)they said they very rarely put it on us, and my sister is particularly white blond and fairskinned , and now I can see their point!

susypx

[WorkingMummy]

Ooi. Red heads are tricky. My sister (and her hubbie and baby) has red hair and she physically cannot tan - only redden or burn. So she simply has to cover up and take the pills (and eat her salmon).