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Dr. Shannon explains when your family should begin taking nutritional supplements and discusses the amounts you should be taking.
Dr. Shannon:
I typically always recommend that kids take a supplement of omega-3 essential fatty acids and a multivitamin.
I think those are sort of the basics that probably every child should be on in the United States.
If you are symptomatic, if your child is having anxiety symptoms, mood symptoms, problems concentrating or focusing then those may be an indication that more supplementation is needed in that child’s diet and you might want to look specifically at different micronutrients in higher amounts than a multivitamin might provide.
Well I think what makes sense is to try to get enough omega-3 essential fatty acids - that’s crucial.
I think women, in general, need higher amounts of minerals so calcium, magnesium or multi-mineral supplement may make sense.
And then probably a multivitamin which contains sufficient amounts of the B vitamins and vitamin C, and that would provide a reasonable balance, a starting place on a limited budget.
Well the way you know that a multivitamin contains enough is it should have a broad array of nutrients, typically 15 or 20 or more and it should have them in at least amounts that are matching the RDA, the daily reference index, which is the amount that the federal government has set up as an average.
However if you are highly stressed, once again,or you are symptomatic with mood issues, anxiety issues then you probably need to look at greater amounts.
About Dr. Scott Shannon, M.D.:
Dr. Scott Shannon, M.D., graduated from the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Following a psychiatric internship he worked for four years in rural Arizona as a general practitioner. Dr. Shannon then completed a psychiatric residency at a Columbia program in New York. After his child psychiatry fellowship at the University of New Mexico he moved to Colorado. His practice includes a wide variety of approaches including herbs, supplements, medications, nutrition, and acupuncture. Dr. Shannon served as the Principle Investigator on a recent research grant exploring the value of acupuncture in the nausea of chemotherapy.
Visit Dr. Shannon at his Web site