Vitals on Vitamins

Fall is here and the cooler temperatures mean cold and flu season is upon us. While nutrients from food are always best, multivitamins can help fill those nutrition gaps in the daily diet. With so many children’s multivitamins on the market, it can be difficult to sift through the best products.

You can confidently choose the best multivitamin for your family, with a little help from FEED. We are breaking down the top ten multivitamins for kids to help guide your next purchase. Follow along for our suggested brands, with a classroom-inspired rating system: green for best choices, yellow for good choices, red for those to avoid.

Green: Best Choice

• KidScents MightyVites

• Rainbow Light Kid's One Multivitamin

Our top picks for children’s multivitamins come from whole food-based sources of nutrients and have no artificial colors or flavors. Plus, these products include antioxidants, to help combat free-radicals, and coenzymes, which help improve digestion and absorption of nutrients.

Yellow: Good Choice

• Flintstones COMPLETE

If our

Best Choices

above are not an option, our next pick for a

Good Choice

is Flintstones COMPLETE vitamins. Although this product does contain some added sugar and other additives, it also provides 100% of the recommended daily value for many vitamins and minerals. In addition, this chewable vitamin has no high fructose corn syrup and provides important nutrients kids are often lacking, such as vitamin D and iron.

Red: Products to Avoid

• L’il Critters Gummy Vites

• Smarty Pants Kids Complete

• The Honest Co. Gummy Multi-Vitamin

• Kirkland Signature Children's Complete Multivitamin

• One A Day Kids Complete Multivitamin Gummies

• Nature’s Way Alive! Children’s Chewable Multi-Vitamin

• Lil' Ollys Kids' Multivitamin

The

Products to Avoid

do not meet FEED approval, primarily due to their high amounts of added sugar. Although some sweeteners can help make chewable vitamins more palatable for kiddos, the products on this list use added sugar as the main ingredient. Additionally, many of these supplements do not meet 100% of the recommended daily value for several vitamins and minerals, with some providing less than 50% of recommended amounts.

Bottom Line:

Choosing whole food-based vitamins is always the best choice. Be sure to look for products with minimal added sugar and high amounts of the recommended daily values of important vitamins and minerals. After all, the purpose of multivitamins should be to provide the variety of nutrients their namesakes suggest!

Want more details? Check out the FEED facts for these vitamins:

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