Nutrition for Children: Definitely Not “Kids’ Stuff”

by James Gormley | September 1, 2024

Parents today are very sophisticated with regard to quality, taste and efficacy for dietary supplements geared to children.

The market for children’s health has been faring much better than the adult market if we are to compare a 20 percent boost in kids’ health vs. growth of only about 8 percent for adult health, according to SPINS, with gummies, liquids and chewable tablets attracting significant interest.

As far as product categories, multivitamins and biotics recently made up more than 80 percent of the kids’ market, with growing interest in prebiotics and probiotics.

Looking at specific health areas, it could have been predicted that cold-and-flu formulas are flying off the shelves—especially for back-to-school and during the winter months—but it might be surprising to some observers that children’s sleep supplements have increased by nearly 33 percent tied to a growing incidence of anxiety and stress.

As far as the biggest drivers of success for children’s supplements go, they include kids’ needs and parents’ expectations. These include such factors as: taste and palatability; efficacy; immunity; growth and development; clean-label products; and more.

A Question of Taste

Fortunately, parents no longer need to hold their kids’ noses as they give them a tablespoon of unflavored cod-liver oil! For kids, taste reigns supreme.

“Companies have caught on that if it doesn’t taste good, kids will push back on taking it, and parents don’t want to waste their money on products that their kids refuse to take,” said Kristina Hall, president and owner of Wisconsin-based True Grace Health.

And it’s not just that kids are so picky by nature, there is some research to suggest that kids can often smell and taste flavors more intensely than do adults, which can really turn off the tykes if the flavor is unpleasant.

Ramona Billingslea, marketing & education manager for Spring, TX-based Betsy’s Health Foods, agrees that it all starts with taste. “We’ve gotten better at providing a pleasing dose of nutrients to kids of all ages without loading them up with too much sugar or unnecessary ingredients,” she noted. Billingslea also welcomes the “less-cutesy” kids products that are still more palatable yet not infantile in packaging or presentation.

Adrienne Benjamin, registered nutritionist and marketing manager, of South Wales, U.K.-based ProVen Probiotics, said that the requirements for palatability are not only driving taste but product formats, as well. The products today “tend to be heavily biased towards gummies, chewable tablets and powders, all of which need to be flavored.”

“In addition, evidence of safety and efficacy is required to help engender trust in products or brands designed to be given to children,” Benjamin added.

According to Neil Levin, CCN, DANLA, senior nutrition education manager of Illinois-based NOW Foods, points to the company’s NOW Kid Cal Chewables as being tasty chewable lozenges that are sugar-free with a “tasty tart orange flavor made from real fruit concentrate” and which provide highly bioavailable calcium and magnesium citrates, vitamin D, vitamin K2 and vitamin A as beta-carotene.”

A Need for Fun

Gummies are, without a doubt, a “fun” delivery form, something which is most certainly not lost on young supplementers.

Not only that but, according to Benjamin, “gummies are one of the fastest growing delivery formats in the supplement space (over 6.5 percent CAGR),” yet there can be challenges related to the high heat which is needed in the processing.

Dawn Jarvis, senior director of nutritional science & educational content, for Florida-based Garden of Life, is excited that the company’s GOL KIDS gummies are in stock and on shelf in time for back to school.

In fact, Garden of Life’s Vitamin D3 gummies are, said Jarvis, a “clean and convenient way to give your kids 100 percent of the daily value for vitamin D in a small delicious, orange-flavored, sugar-free gummy,” all with no artificial ingredients.

The company’s GOL KIDS Immune Gummy is said to “deliver whole-food vitamin C from organic amla berry, along with vitamin D3 and chelated zinc, all at 25 percent DV in two small delicious, easy-to-chew cherry gummies, again without any artificial ingredients or sugar.”

“We are always looking for new formats as long as they can allow us to give RDI of the actives,” Levin pointed out. “Taste and format are important but quality and function also needed to meet our consumers’ expectations.”

Support for Immunity

“Probiotics are particularly important in relation to the immune system and there are now significant levels of evidence that probiotics have an extraordinarily powerful effect in strengthening the immune system of young children, particularly with respect to prevention of coughs and colds—in fact, it is now recognized that probiotics provide a much greater benefit than traditional nutrients such as vitamin C and zinc,” said Benjamin.

“ProVen Probiotics Fit for School product combines probiotics with both vitamins C and D,” added Benjamin.

Jarvis noted that the “top immune supporting ingredients for children are vitamins C, D and zinc; 16 years of NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) data have shown significant deficiencies in these nutrients.”

The data show that 87 percent of U.S. children have inadequate intake of vitamin D. Fortunately, most parents know that vitamin D is important for kids’ growing bones and immune health.

In addition, the microbiome connection is fortunately not lost on manufacturers, retailers or parents.

“We’re seeing a lot of interest in NOW BerryDophilus, which has 2 billion CFUs from a combination of 10 carefully selected probiotic bacterial strains designed to support gastrointestinal health and healthy immune system function,” said Levin.

“Healthy intestinal flora also help to create a favorable environment for the absorption of nutrients—sweetened with xylitol, as BerryDophilus won’t harm teeth and it tastes really good,” Levin added. “We also offer Extra-Strength BerryDophilus 10 billion CFUs, which is five times stronger than our regular strength BerryDophilus.”

“Not only that, we also developed the NOW OralBiotic, which contain BLIS K12, a powerful strain of beneficial bacteria that has been clinically shown to support the maintenance of mouth, ear, nose and throat health in children,” noted Levin.

“Most definitely, long gone are the days when probiotics were only given to kids after a course of antibiotics for earaches,” noted Jarvis. “Considerable scientific evidence exists to show that supporting a healthy microbiome is central not only to digestive health but is key to a healthy immune system, brain health and mood.”

Jarvis added, “Emerging research suggests that a compromised microbiome, especially in kids, may be associated with poor immune health, some common allergies and autoimmune conditions—again, the message here is to give kids probiotics daily as a preventative measure rather than waiting until your child is constipated or sick.”

According to Jarvis, Garden of Life launched a relatively new probiotics line, including an Advanced Pre + Probiotic Gummy for Kids.

“Probiotic gummies are usually produced with just a single probiotic strain, high in sugar and void of added beneficial ingredients—Garden of Life has risen to the challenge to provide a high-quality probiotic gummy in an efficacious dose of 5 billion CFUs with multi-strains (four spore-forming probiotics) and FOS prebiotic fiber along with 800 IU (100 percent Daily Value) of vitamin D,” added Jarvis.

Clean Ingredients Rule

“If we are delivering whole-food nutrition to children for immune support, we should not also be including unhealthy ingredients, such as sugar, which can actually suppress immune function and cause both obesity and tooth decay,” said Jarvis.

“Picky parents chose Garden of Life gummies because clean nutrition starts with Certified USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) Organic and Non-GMO (genetically modified organism) Verified Ingredients,” added Jarvis.

“In fact, Garden of Life has market research to show that parents are willing to pay for certain things when it comes to supplements for kids, including organic and non-GMO,” noted Jarvis.VR