Did you know babies have higher Vitamin C requirements than toddlers?!

This topic has become a little complicated of late, so I’ll try to share the information as simply as possible.

The government recommends: “All children aged 6 months to 5 years are given vitamin supplements containing vitamins A, C and D every day. Babies who are having more than 500ml (about a pint) of infant formula a day should not be given vitamin supplements.”

So following the government guidelines, based on the recommended daily allowance established by the National Institutes of Health, babies 6 months+ who receive no formula and are breastfed should receive 50mg daily of Vitamin C.

The reason in which Mighty Kids labelled our Vitamin C as suitable from age 2+ is with consideration to the above statement -that infants may already be using a formula up to the age of 2 and may not require additional supplementation.

So following the suggestions above, we would confidently recommended the Mighty Kids Vitamin C for babies aged 6months+ who do not have any infant formula, at a serving of 1ml (1ml would be equal to 50mg which is 100% RDA for age group 6-12months).

Now the complication arises here: for parents of formula fed infants feeling disappointed at missing out on the wonderful support of Vitamin C, when your babies come down with seasonal bugs, you may naturally feel you want to give them extra Vitamin C to boost their immune systems.
We would be doing you a disservice not to share the below view for you consideration:

There appears to be a real twist in the current advice and here it is- we are advised when it comes to infant nutrition, human milk is the ideal benchmark and provides the optimal amounts of vitamins and minerals needed by a baby. Infant formula is designed to replicate this as closely as possible. Yet formula fed babies are the ones who do NOT require additional vitamins as the formula is considered plentiful… yet human milk is lacking & requires additional vitamins?

This could leave any parent feeling confused!

This may be a good topic of conversation to raise with your health care provider should you feel it would, in fact, be beneficial to add Vitamin C to your babies diet at the same dosage as a baby consuming breast milk (1ml which contains 50mg).
Vitamin C is water soluble and does not store in the body, it’s constantly flushed out, we actually CANNOT store it in the body, and we CANNOT make it ourselves, yet we certainly need it daily as it’s our biggest defence vitamin! Babies aged 6-12 months all have a high need for vitamin C – in fact a higher need than toddlers age 1-3.
Low levels of vitamin c amongst this age group are a concern and the reason the government advise supplementation.

The below quote is taken from the wonderful book The Vitamin Cure for Infant and Toddler Health Problems: “Certainly, one cannot find an infant multivitamin with too much vitamin C; so, in searching for the best preparation, get all the vitamin C you can.”

It’s my intention to provide you with information, so you are able to make your own informed choices.

In regards to our other line of supplements, the current advice we have still stands at 12 months+ for our liposomal single supplements (Vitamin D3/K2 and Magnesium) and 2+ years for our liposomal Multivitamin.