For proper growth and development, children need vitamins to support their overall health and well-being. These essential nutrients boost endurance and help the body resist various illnesses, including infections. It’s well-known that many diseases hit children harder during the winter and spring months when their diets often lack fresh vegetables, fruits, and berries—the primary sources of vitamins.
A deficiency in these vital substances can lead to stunted growth, improper development, and a range of health issues, such as skeletal deformities, skin and mucous membrane diseases, impaired vision, and memory problems. Depending on the severity of these deficiencies, we can distinguish between hypovitaminosis, which arises from a lack of vitamins in the body, and avitaminosis, a more severe form of deficiency.
In our country, thanks to the improving economic conditions for workers, avitaminosis is quite rare. However, hypovitaminosis is more common due to insufficient vitamins in the diet. In a typical diet, vitamins such as A, D, B2, B, PP, and C may often be lacking.
The early signs of hypovitaminosis in children include apathy, headaches, irritability, poor sleep, and sometimes excessive sweating. Older children may experience memory lapses and distractibility. All illnesses, even mild ones, tend to be more severe and often become chronic in children suffering from hypovitaminosis. Therefore, it is crucial to organize children’s diets in such a way that they receive an adequate supply of vitamins throughout the year. Children require these nutrients constantly, as their growth, development, and the maturation of all organs and systems are actively taking place.
Caring for children’s health should begin even before they are born. Pregnant women need to consume a balanced diet rich in vitamins, as this affects the normal intrauterine development of the child and helps build up vitamin reserves in the mother’s body. During pregnancy, women should ensure they eat enough meat, fish, organ meats, liver, kidneys, heart, brain, cheese, eggs, and a variety of vegetables, fruits, and berries. In winter and spring, when fresh produce is limited, expectant mothers should drink at least one glass of juice daily. In the last two months of pregnancy, it is recommended to take fish oil—one tablespoon two to three times a day.
For the first one to two months after birth, infants receive all the necessary nutrients from breast milk. Therefore, it is essential to pay attention to the nutritional quality of the breastfeeding mother’s diet, which should include products like milk, cheese, butter, meat, fish, and eggs. It is also crucial for everyone to consume enough vegetables, greens, berries, and fruits, preferably raw. Buckwheat, oatmeal, and barley porridge are recommended, while foods made from flour and white bread should be limited.