Warning about overdosed vitamin pills for children: consumer advice centers are sounding the alarm

Warning about overdosed vitamin pills for children: consumer advice centers are sounding the alarm

Parents who want to do something good for their children with vitamin pills should be careful, according to the Federal Association of Consumer Advice Centers (vzbv). The vzbv boss Ramona Pop warned against giving too high doses and medically unnecessary vitamin pills to children. In most cases, children do not need nutritional supplements and should only take them after consulting a doctor. Such products are often expensive, useless or even harmful to health.

A market check by consumer advice centers shows that many nutritional supplements aimed at children are dosed too high, contain unnecessary ingredients and are more reminiscent of sweets than healthy nutritional supplements. Of the 33 products examined, 23 exceeded the recommended consumption levels for vitamins and minerals of the German Nutrition Society for children between the ages of four and seven.

According to experts, some of the products examined actually resemble candy. Six products even exceed the maximum amounts for adults as suggested by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. The vzbv therefore calls for binding maximum values ​​for vitamins and minerals in dietary supplements, which should also be based on age groups. To date, these products are not subject to any approval process and have not been tested for safety or effectiveness.

It is proposed that the law prohibits the risk of products being confused with sweets and that manufacturers should not give the impression that the dietary supplements promote health or learning performance. These demands are intended to ensure that parents are more conscious about administering vitamin pills to their children and that the children's health is not endangered by unsuitable nutritional supplements.