Vitamin Overdose in ChildrenAnything beyond limit is dangerous and so is vitamin overdose in children.
A combination of water soluble and fat soluble vitamins is essential for healthy growth and development. Parents give their children vitamin supplements so that they can maintain the optimum level of vitamin in their bodies. But, excess of these vitamins or an overdose can be fatal and result in severe health diseases. Children’s vitamin overdose occurs by accidentally or intentionally taking more than recommended dietary allowances of vitamins. Most of the multivitamins or vitamin supplements are a combination of all essential vitamins and minerals. The major threat in consuming large amounts of multivitamins is the presence of iron. Iron toxicity can be fatal, leading to food poisoning and even child mortality. In case of vitamin overdose, children are more prone to infections, allergies and many other health disorders. The most common symptoms include nausea, vomiting, weight loss, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, itching, dry skin, hair loss. An overdose of Vitamin A results in headaches, yellow pigmentation, blurred vision, hair loss and liver damage. Children with Vitamin A toxicity show signs of low grade fever, dry skin, sore mouth and diarrhea. An overdose of Vitamin B can lead to neurological disorder and numbness in hands and mouth. Toxicity of Vitamin B3 can show symptoms of faintness, abdominal pain, low glucose level, diarrhea, jaundice, headache and impairment in liver function. During any case of toxicity or overdose, children’s vitamins prove to be very harmful. It is very essential that parents should consult a child specialist before giving any supplement to their children.
The supplements must not be taken as a replacement of natural food sources rich in vitamins. Most of the children are attracted by various fun character shapes and natural fruity flavors of the vitamin supplements. Parents should monitor that they don’t take an overdose. The supplements should be kept away out of the reach and in case any accident occurs, immediately call upon for a doctor or poison control department. It takes four hours to perform chelation, so take an immediate action. Vitamins are vital nutrients for the human body that are required for many important body processes to take place at any given time. The requirement of vitamins is usually minimal in terms of quantity. However, even a small amount of vitamins can be the difference between enduring good health and poor health. Vitamins play an important role in several different varied functions of the body such as immunity, bone development and collagen production to name just a few. Deficiencies of these vital nutrients have caused numerous health problems in the past and continue to do so in areas where malnourishment is prevalent.
The human body needs several different nutrients to help it produce and maintain cells. However, as in the case of obese individuals, too much nutrition is bad for health and can cause several short term and long term health problems. The same logic applies to vitamins as well.
While it is necessary to fill the body with vitamins, an overdose of vitamins can cause serious health problems. Vitamin overdose in children tends to be more frequent than the same problem occurring in adults. The reason for this is essentially related to poor knowledge of the nutritional requirements of these children. Therefore, supplements that are fed to adults are also given to children and that may lead to vitamin overdose in children. A good example of why this happens can be seen when considering the normal dosages for vitamin a. A child requires between 300 and 400 MCG of vitamin a everyday whereas an adult requires over 600 MCG of the same vitamin daily. This is double of what the child should be consuming which is why one tends to see more cases of vitamin A overdose in children as compared to vitamin A overdose in adults.
It is important to understand the term vitamin overdose at this stage. An overdose occurs when the amount of a particular substance in the body is many times more than the requirement or the capacity of the body. Slight variations in the form of excess or deficiency is not harmful. The term overdose refers to the medical emergency condition when the substance needs to be removed from the body quickly so that any side effects associated with it are avoided.
Some vitamin overdose symptoms are easily reversible while others may cause long term damage to the health of the individual. It is therefore important that an individual take the advice of a doctor before trying to consume vitamin supplements.
Vitamin supplements should only be consumed by individuals who have been diagnosed with a specific vitamin deficiency. Others can consume healthy foods which are natural sources of vitamins. These natural foods are good for the body because they provide many different nutrients. Most doctors will agree that it is better to have a natural source rather than an artificial source for vitamins.
Vitamin overdose usually occurs over a long period of time as the individual begins to add more and more vitamins to his or her system. This typically happens amongst people who have recently begun to consume multivitamin supplements without checking if they have any signs of or are suffering from vitamin deficiency in the first place. The effects of this type of vitamin overdose take time to set in. Another important thing to understand when it comes to a vitamin overdose is that the symptoms are often mild and unnoticed for long periods of time. To further complicate matters, the symptoms of each type of overdose are different. For example, the vitamin D overdose symptoms would be much different from the Vitamin C overdose symptoms. Vitamin B overdose, vitamin K overdose, vitamin B complex overdose symptoms all differ from each other to some extent. To add to that, these symptoms may overlap with many different common medical conditions that may affect your body.
For this reason, one needs to visit a doctor when the symptoms of vitamin overdose are experienced to make sure that one understands the underlying cause before remedial action can be taken. It is also important not to ignore these symptoms as one will suffer from serious health consequences if the condition lasts for too long.
Different vitamins cause different types of symptoms when they are consumed in excess quantities. Vitamin a overdose can cause liver damage over a period of time. Other vitamin a overdose symptoms include headaches and blurry vision. Blurry vision is enough of a symptom to justify a visit to the doctor. Vitamin b complex is a collection of b1, b2, b6 and b12 vitamins. These vitamins are all good for the body, but only when consumed in moderation. The range of vitamin b overdose symptoms covers nausea, vomiting, high blood pressure or low blood pressure, hypersensitivity, fatigue and many many more. Vitamin b overdose symptoms are vast and confusing because of the fact that this nomenclature could refer to any of the b vitamins.
Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits and is very good for health and immunity. An individual who suffers from a vitamin c overdose will experience digestive distress. Usually, vitamin c overdose does not cause serious health problems.
Vitamin d is responsible for the absorption and regulation of calcium in the blood. Calcium is one of the building blocks of bone material. A vitamin d overdose will lead to the excess presence of calcium in the blood. This will, over time, lead to calcium deposits developing in various blood vessels and tissues of the body. The heart muscles are susceptible to this problem which is why cardiac symptoms are often listed as vitamin d overdose side effects. Vitamin d is also produced in the skin when it is exposed to direct sunlight. However, this will never lead to a vitamin d overdose.
The body of a child undergoes much more change than the body of an adult. This happens as the child is growing. The nutritional needs of a child are very different from the needs of an adult. It is therefore imperative that parents have a good idea of what kind of nutrition their child needs. This practice amongst parents will reduce the chances of vitamin overdose in children. Children also need to have their health monitored regularly by health care professionals to ensure that they are growing and developing normally. At any point, a deficiency or an overdose of vitamins is bad for the health of the child.
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