Children are small people, you heard that saying often. However, that's not true: Children bodies work differently and we can't just copy our habits and paste them onto our kids. Complementary health products are one of such things that can cause more harm than we think they can.
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There is an estimation that almost 12 percent of children (1 in 9) in the United States are using some form of complementary health product. The reason is very simple: Parents want the best for their kids and since those products are safe for parents, they must be probably safe for their children. The bad news is that "must be" should be "maybe are, maybe are not". And from that the danger may arise.
Parents should know that complementary health products, including dietary supplements and herbal medicines, have not been tested for safety in children. Some of them are, but many of them are not tested. And if they are safe, there is no guarantee they will have any effect on a little body. Since children's systems, from digestive to immune to nervous, are not fully developed, they may react to a particular substance in an unexpected way. Obviously, those effects may be more severe at infants and young children because their bodies are far from adults.
The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend vitamin use in healthy children over one year old. What's more, supplements for children and adolescents who are healthy and eat a varied diet are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The thing is, a dietary supplement may contain many different compounds and its active ingredients may not be known. Yes, there is a label, but you can't trust the label. You read it well: You can't trust the label. Studies have revealed that in some cases there are differences between labelled ingredients and those in the bottle. Since you certainly would not take something unknown, it would be wise not to give it to your kid either.
There is another bad news: Even if that thing from the bottle is not dangerous for your kid, it may be dangerous in combination with other elements, or it can nullify the effects of other drugs. Let's see some of the most common combinations.
If your kid is using acetaminophen (it may be called paracetamol in your country) for pain relief, and you give your kid vitamin C, you are not doing a good deed. Acetaminophen is good for pain relief, vitamin C is also good, but C slows the processing of acetaminophen. In other words, you'll have a kid with a good immune system but in pain. Not something you really want.
St. John's wort is a plant used for centuries to help with depression, to bring people up when they are down. However, it interacts with many drugs and limits the effectiveness of many.
If your kid is using a product that contains melatonin to sleep better, keep in mind that it should not be used without consultation with a doctor because melatonin is not suitable for sick children with kidney disease, liver problems, depression, hormonal disorder... And there's more.
And now let's say a word or two about multivitamins. Everybody loves multivitamins, hoping, we guess, that more vitamins will make them stronger and healthier. However, children may very easily get too much: they are at a greater risk to have more minerals in their bodies than we'd recommend. And too much vitamins, copper, iron or some other mineral is definitively a bad situation.
And now the good news. What your kid really needs? The answer is simple: Balanced diet. In other words, give your little one meat, fruit, fish, salad, milk, rice, eggs, vegetables... Let your kid eat in regular interval, a bit of everything, nothing too much, and health will be all around. ■