Finding Organic Vitamins

Hi Wendy,

It has taken me a while to get around to tackling your question as I haven’t found the right answer. (Nor did I really ever find an entirely satisfactory prenatal vitamin.) The shortest, clearest answer I can give you is that my daughter is about to turn two and I don’t give her vitamins. I try to rely on feeding her a varied, excellent organic/local whole foods diet to get in her what she needs. But sometimes she is picky and weeks go by when I’m thinking she hasn’t had enough protein or orange vegetables or leafy greens. Or I look at her winter-pale face and wonder about her vitamin D level. This usually passes pretty quickly.

As you’re looking for organic vitamins, I’m assuming you understand that they’re vastly preferable to synthetic ones which can contain any number of additives, fillers, dyes, and even animal byproducts. I’m no chemist, but reading the back of vitamin bottles in a traditional drug store makes me wish I were. It’s daunting. Even “natural” vitamins don’t mean much as this isn’t a regulated term. Home Safe Home author Debra Lynn Dadd writes on her website that “natural” only indicates the lack of artificial additives. Ingredients in “natural” vitamins can still contain pesticide residues and the like. The best option, then, is to buy an organic vitamin made only from whole foods.

Easier said than done. Some of the whole foods multivitamins I’ve heard good things about (I hesitate to name names here because it would be pure conjecture – I haven’t tried them myself) aren’t appropriate for toddlers. For further reading on good and bad vitamins, check out the extensive information compiled by the Organic Consumers Association.

With regard to toddler-specific vitamins, I’ve heard people swear by Juice Plus gummies. Attachment parenting guru Dr. Sears plugs them on his website. I have my doubts. They aren’t organic. And gummies in general are a personal pet peeve of mine. I don’t think children should be taught vitamins are candy. Nor do I think nutrition should have to be doled out in sugar-bribe format. A quick Google of these gummies reveals plenty of fans and critics. One detractor claims they contain 85% corn syrup, 10% beef gelatin, plus added nutrients. I have no way of substantiating that information but it’s pretty disturbing nonetheless.

While researching Juice Plus, I was reminded that I have actually given my daughter a supplement. Her iron levels were borderline low a while back and further tests revealed her storage levels to be quite low. She has always been exclusively breastfed (still is) so she didn’t have added formula iron in her diet. Iron deficiency can mess with brain development so we set out to find her the purest iron possible. (The stuff our doctor suggested contained high fructose corn syrup, red dyes, and other things I couldn’t pronounce or identify in nature.) We wound up with Iron-C, a product made by Pure Encapsulations. The vitamin C and iron aren’t marked as whole foods-derived but the only other ingredients it contains are hypo-allergenic plant fiber and a vegetable capsule. We actually poured the contents out of the capsule and mixed into her oatmeal-and-yogurt so she wasn’t even swallowing that. Pure Encapsulations does make a kiddie vitamin but I’m not giving it to her.

In the future if she needs another specific nutrient/vitamin, I’ll locate the purest version possible. Some days I find myself researching fish oils for toddlers, so I imagine she might wind up with some of that at some point. But as for dosing her with a multivitamin, I’m declining for now. If I run into the perfect one, who knows. If you or anyone else has found this needle in the haystack, please email completeorganicpregnancy@yahoo.com or post in comments below.

I have to stop writing. She’s up from her nap. Time for a vitamin-rich lunch.

Hope this helps.