Best Vitamins for Kids' Immune Systems
When you have a child, cold and flu season seems to never end. Maybe it takes a quick break for summer, but the rest of the year? Hold on to your hats! When you send them off to playgrounds and cafeterias, they’re bound to pick something up sooner or later. That’s why it’s so important to understand the role of vitamins for kids in strengthening your child’s immune system.
How to Strengthen Your Children’s Immune Systems
Of all the ways to strengthen your child’s immune system, one tactic is not necessarily better than the other. Rather, taking a holistic approach that includes a healthy diet, regular physical activity, good hygiene and the incorporation of immune-supporting supplements, such as vitamins, may be the best route. Let’s take a closer look.
Vitamins
Vitamins come in two forms: naturally within foods and in supplements that provide a specific amount of a given vitamin. With immune-supporting properties, vitamins are a key addition to any diet, as they help enhance the body’s immune response.
Vitamin C, for example, is packed with antioxidants and may help reduce harmful free radicals. Vitamins D, A and E also play large roles in supporting your child’s immune system. Ensuring your child gets enough of these — whether through food or multivitamins — is critical to their development.
Healthy Food
If you guessed diet would make this list, give yourself a gold star! Of course, what your children eat has a direct impact on their immune system. With a properly balanced diet, your child will get all the vitamins and minerals they need during these oh-so-important years.
But let’s be brutally honest for a second, shall we? Is your kid a big broccoli fan? Does your child just love seeking out lean meats, citrus fruits, green, leafy vegetables and/or whole grains? We thought perhaps not. And that’s OK!
It’s hard to get kids to eat things like a plant-based diet with a variety of healthy food sources and loads of fruits and vegetables. That’s where vitamins come in. By bridging the gap between a picky eater and her nutritional needs, vitamins can be tremendously helpful for children.
Sleep
Without question, getting a good night’s rest is important to your child’s immune system. After all, sleep is the time for the body to heal itself and undertake vital repair functions.
Bonus: we offer children’s multivitamins that contain melatonin with herbals chamomile and lemon balm.
Exercise
There’s a reason recess is the best part of the day at school. Getting to move around, take in some fresh air and socialize while playing is supremely important for a child’s immune system.
Do Vitamins Help Kids’ Immune Systems?
In a word, yes. Certain vitamins and minerals play key roles in developing a strong immune system. While all vitamins and minerals are helpful in their own way, there is a specific set of nutrients that play an outsized role in supporting children’s health:
Vitamin C, D and iron are super helpful in maintaining immune system function. Zinc plays a key role in supporting your child’s immune system while probiotics promote a healthy gut, which leads to improvements in your child’s immune system. Check out SmartyPants’ Kids Prebiotic and Probiotic Immunity Formula for gut health.
What Are the Best Vitamins for Kids’ Immune Systems?
Vitamin C
If Vitamin C has one reputation, it’s for supporting immune systems in people of all ages. By protecting the body from free radicals, Vitamin C is found naturally in citrus fruits, strawberries and leafy greens. It’s also quite common as a supplement on its own and as part of a multivitamin.
Vitamin D
Another critical nutrient is Vitamin D for kids. This important vitamin helps support the immune system, particularly in children. Your child may get enough Vitamin D from the sun or through Vitamin D-rich foods such as fish, but if you have a picky eater on your hands or live in an area that doesn’t see much sunshine, rest assured that all of our SmartyPants multivitamins contain a Vitamin D supplement.
Zinc
Zinc can be found in certain lean meats and legumes or in many SmartyPants vitamin supplements. Learn more about zinc for kids.
Probiotics
Not to gross you out, but the gut is teeming with bacteria. Some of it is helpful and some of it is harmful. Probiotics are the former type, as they create a peaceful balance between both kinds. Introducing probiotics into your child’s diet can help keep their gut health in check while promotes healthy immune function* Learn more about probiotics for kids.
Get Vitamins for Children’s Immune System
SmartyPants offers a number of multivitamin options for children depending on what you’re looking for. They come in easy-to-chew gummy form and taste great, so your kids will be asking for “vitamin time” every single day.
Packed with essential vitamins such as C and D, as well as minerals like zinc, Make sure your children are getting the right mix of nutrients with SmartyPants’ children’s multivitamin. Take our quiz to find out which vitamin would be best for your family!
