Kids Vits

What supplements my kids should be taking.

Firstly, focus on a whole food diet void of junk food. Junk food can be rated on a scale from slightly bad to very bad, but any processed food can be considered junk food. Sugar and fried foods are very bad for you foods, brown rice and noodles are slightly bad for you foods. So put most of your efforts into keeping your kids away from the worst offenders. But if they have any health conditions like asthma, allergies, chronic ear infections, acne, and so on, then a completely strict whole food diet is a necessary step in the healing of these conditions. (Inhalers, medications, and antibiotics don’t heal these conditions, they only put out the fire until the next flare-up.) Cutting out all junk foods and eating only whole unprocessed foods can often clear up such conditions for good. If you think this is too difficult, then find a support group. There are hundreds of them full of parents in your situation, many of whom have been successful. You can flatten the learning curve by getting or reading the advice of these parents. Many of these groups can be found online.

If your kids don’t eat a completely whole food, non-processed diet, then they certainly will need to take supplements to make up some of the difference. But even if your kids eat a “perfect” diet, they will still need the following supplements.

1) Vitamin D: This comes from sunshine close to noon on bare skin without sunscreen or, from wild fatty fish. If your kid is eating wild salmon 2x daily or is sunbathing in the nude for 20-40 minutes at noon each day, then no Vitamin D supplement is needed. Otherwise, in general here’s how much D they need:

Age 0-2 = 1,000 iu daily
Age 2-12 = 2,000 iu daily
Age 13-18 = 3,000 – 4,000 iu daily depending on body size

For extra credit: Before vaccines (should you chose to use them) and during cold and flu season they can take a double dose daily for 7 days to boost the immune system. When taking extra D, give some extra vitamin A with it. If the child is eating mostly whole foods including lots of and a wide variety of greens and veggies, then they get plenty of A from these during the off season. But when you double the D to boost their immunity, give them vitamin A at 50% the level of D. So for a 4 year old getting a vaccine next week, increase both his D to 4,000 and add in 2,000 iu of A for 7 days prior to the vaccine. Or if he is exposed to a friend with a bad flu, do the same thing except do it for 7 days after the exposure. And of course, if your child comes down with the flu, increase to these levels during the course of the bug.

Breast Feeding moms: Vitamin D typically is not part of human breast milk. But not because it’s naturally absent, but because the mom has low levels of vitamin D. Studies show that the mom has to have blood levels around 60 ng/ml in order to have enough vitamin D in the breast milk. They also show that unless mom is taking 8,000 iu daily of a vitamin D supplement, she won’t reach the necessary levels for D to spill over into the milk. I recommend that mom’s take a minimum of 8,000 iu of Vitamin D daily throughout the entire pregnancy and nursing years. And, to be completely responsible, she needs to check her blood levels of D twice yearly to make sure that she is in the 60-80 ng/ml range.

2) Omega 3: This comes from wild fatty fish, some seeds like flax and chia, and certain animal tissues from wild game. So again, no one eats this twice daily. So instead we all need to take an omega 3 supplement for optimal health. The most important time to supplement with this is when we are in the womb and developing through childhood.

Age 0-2 = 300 mg
Age 2-12 = 600 mg
Age 12-18 = 900-2000 depending on body size.

Warning!!!: DO NOT TAKE RANCID OMEGA 3 OIL! Many brands on the market are partially rancid, taking rancid omega 3 is worse than taking no omega 3. The solution is to make sure you give your kids high quality omega 3 supplements. In my experience, Nordic Naturals brand is never rancid. You can find these at my office or at most health food stores or even on Amazon.com.

Extra credit: Omega 3, like vitamin D and A, can be increased for 7 days before or after known immune stressing events like vaccines and illnesses. Vitamin D and A help to increase the immune action of the body, while omega 3 helps to keep the immune action from going up too high. Allergies are an example of an immune system that in some ways is over active. Omega 3 deficiency (along with junk food) is often the culprit in childhood seasonal allergies.

Pregnant and nursing moms: Omega 3 is essential for the developing fetus and nursing infant. Mom’s need to take 2,000 mg of omega 3 daily during pregnancy and breast feeding years to make sure that baby gets enough from mom.

3) Iodine: This is rarely deficient in the American junk food diet simply because salt sold in the US has iodine added to it. But just because you aren’t “deficient” in a nutrient doesn’t mean that you have “sufficient” levels of the nutrient for optimal health and performance. Also, just because you ingest your daily minimum of iodine, doesn’t mean that it is doing its job once inside the body. There are three toxins, bromide, flouride, and chlorine that interfere with your body’s ability to utilize iodine. One or more of these three toxins are found in our water, our dental products, and just about anything made from petroleum or plastic in the case of bromide. It’s impossible, and in the case of plastics even undesirable, to avoid these toxins completely, so the antidote is to ingest higher amounts of iodine. Iodine cannot build up to toxic levels in the body so it’s difficult to overdose with it.

Ages 0-2 = 50 mcg daily
Ages 2-12 = 100 mcg daily
Ages 12-18 = 150 to 300 mcg daily depending on body size

Extra Credit: Similar to D, A, and omega 3, iodine helps the immune system to kill microbes. Iodine by itself is an antiseptic as you know. Before, during, or after a known immune exposure or event like a vaccine or flu, increase the daily dosage of iodine up to 100 times the doses listed above. The way you can tell you have dosed them high enough is that their mucus is thinner, even watery. Thick mucus, either in the lung, sinus, throat, or even stool, is usually a sign of a need for temporary high doses of iodine. Iodine stimulates the mucus thinning enzyme call mucinase. It’s the same enzyme that the drug “Mucinex” stimulates. Iodine works better and usually corrects the cause of the thick mucus in the first place. Thick mucus can also be a result of a dairy sensitivity or dairy allergy. Cutting out the dairy for 2 weeks will correct the thick mucus issue if it is the cause. But if no dairy allergy, then increase iodine intake for overly thick mucus.

But don’t use the red iodine that you can paint on your skin. This can burn the skin in some kids. And it is not intended to be used orally. Instead use “Liquid Iodine” by Biotics. I carry this at my office but sometimes you can find it illegally on Amazon.com. It is a food grade iodine that is safe and effective for kids and adults, can be used internally or topically. I use it topically for cuts as an antiseptic and for any skin infections like acne or fungus laden toe nails.

Published on: Nov 4, 2016 @ 08:26

Looking Forward!

Yours in health,

Dr. Campise
Fresno Chiropractor

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