Do kids need supplements?

Hi and happy Feel-Good Monday!

This is where we share our favorite tips, tricks, secrets, and ways to "think like a healthy person" so that you can find your own delicious path to healthy living.

"Feel-Good Mondays" are meant to help us get back into that place of feeling energized, nourished, and ready to take inspired action for the week ahead.

We recommend supplements a lot in our practice (and I take a fair amount myself), but the truth is that I don’t believe that everyone needs to be on a ton of vitamins.

I’m a actually big believer in choosing a very customized mix of supplements – as needed – depending on what your body truly needs, at any given moment in time. Our bodies are always changing, depending on our age, the season, stress levels, our immune system, our environment (pollution, mold, etc), and – perhaps most importantly, what we eat.

In an ideal world, we’d be able to get the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients we need from our food. But unfortunately, that usually doesn’t happen in today’s modern world. Environmental pollutants, stress, lack of sleep, genetic factors, soil depletion, and an unbalanced diet can lead to the need to “fill in the gaps” with supplements.

The same goes for our kids (including my own!). While I strive to feed my 3-year old the healthiest diet I can, he isn’t eating a lot of wild, fatty fish on the regular (fish oil supplements to the rescue!), or big doses of fermented foods (probiotics for the win!), and we have limited sunlight here in NYC for six months of out of the year (vitamin D3 saves the day!).

Thankfully, Rye LOVES his supplements and actually looks forward to them every day (cause they taste GREAT), so it’s a win for both of us. I know he’s getting a little added immune support (D3), gut support (probiotics), and brain support (fish oil) and that helps put me at ease. Which, as a parent, I’ll take any way I can.

Check out my kids supplement video series to learn more about the Nordic Naturals supplements we use in my home (nope, I’m not a paid spokesperson for them – I just really, really believe in their products and integrity!):

1) Vitamin D3