We have been getting this new snack from Gerber for the last couple of weeks. Much like the Fruit Twists, it has been a great hit with my son who enjoys it on the way back from daycare.

Here is what we like about this product -

1. Contains real fruits and made with yogurt
2. Tastes good
3. Only 80 calories per twist
4. No saturated fat or trans fat
5. No cholesterol
6. Added vitamins and minerals

Here is what we don’t like about this product -

1. No fiber although a label on the front shows made with whole grains
2. Added sugar, also contains sodium
3. It is not organic
4. High cost – a pack of 6 twists costs over 3 dollars

Overall, I think not a bad alternative if you are on-the-go and need to offer a snack. But I would not rely on it to skip real fruits!

Disclaimer – I have not received any sponsorship or free samples of product from Gerber for writing this review. For complete nutritional information and other products, visit Gerber’s website.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Can you imagine a breakfast cereal which you can customize based on your own unique tastes? Not happy with the amount of sugar in your favorite cereal? Would like to have more of your favorite yogurt covered raisins and less of the freeze-dried strawberries or blueberries? How about other exotic nuts, fruits and seeds not usually available in standard brands?

Well, now you can! If you live in Germany, UK, Netherlands check out mymuseli custom-mixed cereals! I just returned from a symposium on mass customization, a recent trend of producing custom-made products, where I heard this success story. I wanted to share it with you because cereal is such a common breakfast item everywhere.

You can select your personal favorite museli base, enhance it by adding a variety of flakes, and then choose from a very broad range of fruits, nuts and seeds. Over 75 ingredients are available, which can offer you 566 quadrillion mixes of museli -the question is, which one is yours! They claim certified organic quality ingredients, although the nutritional information about the mixed cereal seems to be missing.

The cereal aisle in a typical grocery supermarket is long and filled with a variety of brands and types of cereals. That is why the idea of custom mix cereal may sound strange, but it seems to have caught on in Europe. What do you think of this idea? Answer the quick poll question below.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Ask The Expert is a weekly column on Littlestomaks.com. The idea is to have a reader-submitted question answered by a nutrition expert or a pediatrician. Feel free to submit your question in the comments section below.

This week, Registered Dietitian Nour El-Zibdeh offers tips for getting enough iron from a vegetarian diet without relying on supplements.

Question: How can I ensure enough iron if my child is on a strict vegetarian diet?

Answer:

Iron is important for health. It is part of hemoglobin, a protein found in red blood cells, and its main role is to transfer oxygen to body tissues and cells.

Too little iron causes fatigue, decreased immunity, and may impair psychomotor development in infants.  Iron deficiency occurs due to three general reasons:

1. increased needs of iron (growth),
2. decreased absorption (iron in the diet comes from sources that are not easily absorbed, such as plant foods),
3. decreased iron intake (low total food intake).

The prevalence of iron deficiency in the United States is low. However, toddlers are at a high risk because they don’t drink or eat iron-fortified formula or cereal anymore, and their intake of iron-containing foods may still be low. Toddlers who are on vegetarian diets, drink more than 24 ounces of milk a day, or suffer from decreased availability of food are at an increased risk.

Type of iron in the diet

There are two types of iron in the diet, heme and non-heme. Heme iron comes from animal sources and is the most easily absorbed. Non-heme iron is the most prevalent in food, found in both animal and plant sources, but its absorption is less efficient and can be influenced by many factors.

When discussing plant sources of iron, two points must be distinguished. First, the amount of iron in plant foods, and second, the amount that is actually absorbed. For example, half cup of soybeans has 4.5 mg of iron, but the fiber and protein in soybeans prevent its absorption. Half cup of tomatoes, on the other hand, has 1 to 2 mg of iron but is easier to absorb.  Vitamin C improves the absorption of iron, while phytates (in bran and whole grains), oxalates (in spinach, rhubarb, strawberries, nuts, chocolate, and wheat bran), polyphenols (in coffee and tea), calcium, and fiber prevent its absorption.

Tips for vegetarian toddlers

1. Offer a variety of plant foods, especially those high in vitamin C. These include guava, lemon, orange, papaya, tomatoes, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, pumpkin, and turnips.
2. Choose iron-fortified cereals and grains when possible.
3. If you are interested in numbers, toddlers one to three years old need 7 mg or iron a day, and toddlers over four years old need 10 mg a day. Since iron in plant foods is not absorbed entirely, aim for more than the recommended amount from plant foods, not supplements. Here are some foods rich in iron.
4. Don’t give your toddler more than 24 ounces of milk (cow, goat, or soy) a day. Milk is low in iron and high in calcium (prevents iron absorption), and too much can be filling causing your child to be uninterested in other iron-containing foods. Too much cow’s milk can also irritate the gastrointestinal tract and cause bleeding, which will lead to iron losses.
5. Don’t stress about iron deficiency unless your child shows symptoms, which include fatigue and weakness, pale skin, mucous membranes, rapid heartbeat, irritability, decreased appetite, dizziness, or feeling lightheaded.
6. Consult with your pediatrician if you suspect deficiency, and don’t give your child iron supplements on your own. The human body doesn’t have a way to get rid of excess iron, so too much can be toxic and cause organ damage.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com. All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer – Information provided in Ask The Expert column on Littlestomaks.com is intended to give you general guidance on a question related to toddler nutrition. It is not meant to be treated as medical advice. You are welcome to contact this expert for a detailed consultation on your specific situation to determine what actions, if any, you should take regarding nutrition and health of your toddlers. We do not recommend you to take any action based solely on the information presented in this column. Experts have agreed to provide their professional opinion on toddler nutrition related questions on a voluntary basis and no compensation is offered to them by Littlestomaks.com.

It seems like there has been an increase in new quinoa products, or maybe it is because we now pay more attention to them on our shopping trips! We call it the unrecognized superfood. It does take a little getting used to and develop a taste for it. But there is no doubt about its exceptional nutritional value.

That is why we are glad to have stumbled upon yet another quinoa product from Ancient Harvest, this time in the form of flakes. You can use them as a hot breakfast cereal, which I have already tried twice this week. I added a few raisins and a spoon of honey to improve its taste. Quinoa flakes can also be used in pancakes or waffles, or as a coating for cooking fish or chicken.

Here is what we like about this product -

1. Made with 100% organic quinoa
2. Very easy to make a hot breakfast cereal, just like oatmeal
3. Rich in iron, phosphorus, thiamin (vitmain B1) and riboflavin (vitamin B2)
4. Gluten free, non GMO
5. No saturated fat or trans fat, no cholesterol, no added sugar
6. 2.4 g fiber, 4.3 g protein per serving
7. Quinoa is a low glycemic index grain and it contains many amino acids (building blocks of proteins)

Here is what we don’t like about this product -

1. Although easy to use, you really need to improve its taste as a hot breakfast cereal.

Overall, we are giving it a thumbs up. I think this is a great idea and we plan to make other recipes using this product!

Disclaimer – I have not received any sponsorship or free samples of product from Ancient Harvest Quinoa for writing this review. For complete nutritional information and other products, visit Quinoa Corporation.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Greetings! There is no doubt that popular food brands have enormous appeal and influence, especially on children who are exposed to heavy marketing. Not a surprise therefore that even 3 year olds can recognize these brands. The bad news is that most of these brands offer sugary, salty and fatty junk foods, to which kids get hooked on early! Parents have to face this challenge as they try to encourage their children to develop healthy eating habits. Sounds familiar?

I started this week by suggesting that we need to have an offensive-defensive strategy for dealing with the attack of popular food brands. The idea is to create your family’s brand of food and nutrition by applying common branding techniques of identifying core values, developing a main message with a logo/slogan, promoting with friends and family and aggressively defending it with a few rules.

Another approach is to identify a few brands and products that resonate with your core values to support your battle against the not-so-healthy-but-otherwise-popular food brands. Association with these brands then becomes an extension of your personal brand.

This week, instead of the usual Five for Fridays, I want to share with you 5 of our favorite brands and why we like them. And no, I have not been paid to highlight them here; the idea here is to offer you a few suggestions as you try to discover what is important to you.

I would love to hear your comments! Feel free to share your favorite food brands and products.

Earth’s Best Organic

Earth’s Best, by far, is our most favorite brand! Our twins grew up on Earth’s Best fruit and vegetable purees, and they continue to love their organic toddler snacks such as Letter of the Day Cookies, Yogurt Rice Crisp Bars and Instant Oatmeal.

In researching Earth’s Best for this article, I found out – much to my surprise – that the company’s founders Ron and Arnie Koss are twins! Their vision of nurturing children with purest foods and growing those foods responsibly to promote a healthier earth resonates with our core values completely.

Earth’s Best brand now belongs to the Hain Celestial Group, Inc. who is responsible for bringing their toddler products to market, and of course, we are very thankful! Their product lineup ranges from infant formulas to baby’s first foods to toddler snacks and meals. They seem to be big on using Seasame Street characters as a marketing tool on their products. Honestly we are not too crazy about it! For us, the appeal is in their promise of organic quality and commitment to the environment.

For a complete list of their products and to learn about their history, visit Earth’s Best website.

Horizon Organic

We are a big fan of Horizon’s organic milk with DHA. We have had our twins on this milk ever since they started cow’s milk. At first, we were looking for an organic milk brand, but when we found Horizon’s milk with added DHA in our local supermarket, it was a no-brainer! DHA is known to support healthy brain and eye development in infants and toddlers. The source of DHA is from algae branded as life’s DHA from Martek Bioscience Corporation.

We believe that milk is an important source of nutrition for a growing child, unless there is the unfortunate situation of milk allergy. Selecting certified organic milk is better because it does not contain any antibiotics or growth hormones.

We are impressed by Horizon’s commitment to organic principles, compassion for their livestock and passion for the land. In my research, I found Horizon’s Standard of Care, which goes in great detail about their beliefs and management practices to support these beliefs. The integrity of this brand is impressive.

For a complete list of their products and company facts, visit Horizon Dairy website and Horizon Organic Facts.

Campbell’s Kids Soups

Campbell’s soups are a household name, no doubt, as you can tell by the prominent place they occupy in any grocery store. Our daughter enjoys Campbell’s kids soups with her favorite characters like Dora and Disney Princess. She loves to help Mom open a can and pour its contents in a saucepan for a quick meal. On a busy day, these ready-to-eat soups come in very handy! We are careful to read the labels because these soups can be high in salt, although Campbell’s is ahead of the curve in reducing the sodium content from its products.

We like Campbell’s as a brand, because they seem to really listen to their consumers while being sensitive to the economic difficulties. Clearly, their brand is positioned for the masses. Although their approach to healthful nutrition and environmental sustainability is incremental in our opinion, we do like their focus on affordable nutrition and continuous improvement. They have also figured out a great way to encourage consumers to prepare home cooked meals using their soups and recipes on the label. From that point of view,  we believe that Campbell’s has the potential to enable a move away from fast food and restaurant food toward home cooking at a very large scale.

Here is an interesting piece of trivia I found while researching their brand – they also produce their own seeds for tomato and peppers!

For a complete list of their products, visit Campbell’s Condensed Soups.

Cheerios

Although our twins are no longer that crazy about Cheerios, this cereal is a family favorite and occupies almost a permanent place on our cereal shelf. When they were younger, it was one of their favorite finger foods, especially when they needed to munch on something in the car!

Although there are many different types of products in the Cheerios family, we go for the plain standard Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios. We like the whole grain oats, low sugar and vitamins (particularly vitamin D) in this cereal. Recently, there has been some recent controversy about their claims around cholesterol and heart health, but we think it is more of a legal issue for them rather than a real concern with the product.

For a complete list of their products, visit Cheerios.

Green Giant Frozen Vegetables

We usually keep our freezer stocked with several packages of Green Giant frozen vegetables. Although fresh produce is the best choice, the convenience of packaged frozen vegetable -  some ready to serve with a sauce – makes it easy to add veggies in your daily diet. We like the affordable diversity of different frozen vegetables from Green Giant. But we also try to limit our selection to some of their simpler products like peas, cauliflower, broccoli and mixed vegetables. Their rice pilaf is also one of our favorites.

As a brand, which is now a part of the giant General Mills, they seem to be able to retain their identity and maintain a connection with their roots in the Minnesota River Valley. We are also impressed by their commitment to sustainability. They are sponsoring an innovative project with The Nature Conservancy. It involves using a combination of native vegetation in infiltration ponds to collect the water runoff from the fields. It is then diverted to a bioreactor (trenches filled with woodchips) where the excess nitrogen is removed and land erosion controlled. This system will also create a habitat for wildlife. Sounds like an interesting idea; although it may take up to 10 years to see the results.

For a complete list of their products, visit The Green Giant.

Enjoy and share with us your favorite brands and products.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Disclaimer: We have not received any sponsorship or free products from these brands and companies for our review. Our opinions are based on personal use and publicly available information.

Ask The Expert is a weekly column on Littlestomaks.com. The idea is to have a reader-submitted question answered by a nutrition expert or a pediatrician. Feel free to submit your question in the comments section below.

This week, Registered Dietitian Jodi Greebel offers a few quick breakfast ideas for your toddler.

Jodi Greebel, MS, RD BS, Biology from Duke University, MS, Nutrition and Dietetics from NYU Experience: Private nutrition counseling practice 5+ years, Co-founder DinDins toddler food, author The Little Black Apron Expertise: Pediatric Nutrition and Weight Loss for Adults Website: DinDins Food , Citrition, LLC Twitter: @DinDinsFood @JodiRD LinkedIn profile: Jodi Greebel Facebook: DinDins Contact: via contact page on DinDins Food website

Question: What are some quick breakfast ideas for my toddler?

Answer:

As you probably have heard a million times, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast provides the energy your child needs after many hours of not eating. Kids who eat breakfast are at a healthier weight, are sick less frequently, are happier and are more likely to get all the nutrients they need in their diets. Unfortunately, it’s easy to skimp on breakfast with the typical chaotic mornings which never seem to be long enough. With these quick ideas, there’s no longer a reason to give a less than healthy breakfast or worse, have your toddler skip breakfast. Whether you are looking for something easy to feed your toddler while you are getting ready or something convenient to grab and go when you are on your way out the door to school or daycare, try out some of our suggestions:

• Drinkable yogurt with a clementine
• Portable pureed fruit (such as Plum Tots Organic Mish Mash sold at many supermarkets and on diapers.com) with mini box of Cheerios
• Whole wheat English muffin with 1 slice melted cheese (just pop in the toaster) and banana
• Healthy muffin such as our Cranberry Zucchini mini muffins from DinDins
• Mini cottage cheese and box of raisins
• Applesauce (or other flavor such as mango/peach) and mozzarella string cheese
• Thomas’ Whole Wheat Bagel Thin with veggie cream cheese and lettuce
• Kozy Shack Original Rice Pudding (also available with no sugar added) with raisins
• Cereal such as Kashi Mighty Bites plus handful blueberries in a resealable bag (cut blueberries in half if your child is not old enough to eat whole ones)
• Instant oatmeal such as Arrowhead Mills with dried cherries (make night before and store in microwaveable container). Reheat in morning, grab spoon and go
• Fage Greek Yogurt with Strawberry or better yet, add your own fruit to Greek yogurt

Please remember to avoid serving low-fat/nonfat dairy products until your child is over 2 years old.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com. All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer – Information provided in Ask The Expert column on Littlestomaks.com is intended to give you general guidance on a question related to toddler nutrition. It is not meant to be treated as medical advice. You are welcome to contact this expert for a detailed consultation on your specific situation to determine what actions, if any, you should take regarding nutrition and health of your toddlers. We do not recommend you to take any action based solely on the information presented in this column. Experts have agreed to provide their professional opinion on toddler nutrition related questions on a voluntary basis and no compensation is offered to them by Littlestomaks.com.

The twins got the idea of a hungry emergency from Little Einsteins, one of their favorite shows on Disney. In this particular episode, the Little Einsteins team goes on a mission to collect ingredients for a rocket soup to help their rocket out of its hungry emergency! They loved it when rocket’s tummy grumbled with hunger and its hungry emergency meter reached its highest red alert level.

As soon as the show was over, they rushed into the kitchen and got on their chairs and started yelling: Baba we have a hungry emergency! Suddenly, their breakfast this past Sunday turned into a game!

My daughter generally eats Froot Loops with milk and honey, while my son favors Raisin Nut Bran, mainly because he likes to pick out the raisin cookies! In addition to their usual cereal, we also offered some strawberries, pears, blueberries and feta cheese. They had a blast digging into all of them just so they could get over their hungry emergency!

Breakfast on weekends are special for us. This is when we get to enjoy our breakfast the Turkish way. Cut fresh fruits, vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, mint with olive oil, feta cheese, olives, toast, veggie omelette or hard-boiled eggs, beef salami are all shared in small plates laid out on the table. Although it is common to eat toasted bread with butter, strawberry or cherry jams or honey, we skip the butter these days and use cheese spreads instead. Freshly brewed hot Turkish tea and orange juice are also served. Sometimes we invite our friends over for a weekend brunch that goes on for a couple of hours!

Try this hungry emergency game with your little ones and let us know how it goes!

This post is a part of Big Words Little Foodies from Jenna of KidAppeal, who is encouraging parents to keep track of funny quotes their kids come up with at mealtime. Check her column out for stories from other parents.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Cereal has become a common choice for breakfast, and often a late night snack, in most American households! Kids love cereal and that is why I asked Registered Dietitian Elisa Zied, MS, RD, CDN, to share one of her video tips selecting a healthy cereal. She is the author of Nutrition at Your Fingertips which just came out in November 2009 and is a “Go-to guide” according to More magazine. Her channel on YouTube has lots of great videos on nutrition tips for both adults and kids; check it out!

Elisa earned a bachelor of arts in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and a master of science in clinical nutrition from New York University.

She blogs at The Zied Guide. You can follow her on Twitter @elisazied.

Here are three easy to remember tips from this video:

• Go whole grain
• Look for fiber – at least 4 g per serving
• Ditch the sugar – not more than 10 – 12 g per serving

And I will add that sometimes you can mix a few different types to keep things interesting for kids. They love funny, colorful shapes so feel free to mix ‘n match!

Enjoy and eat healthy!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com. All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer – Information provided in Ask The Expert column on Littlestomaks.com is intended to give you general guidance on a question related to toddler nutrition. It is not meant to be treated as medical advice. You are welcome to contact this expert for a detailed consultation on your specific situation to determine what actions, if any, you should take regarding nutrition and health of your toddlers. We do not recommend you to take any action based solely on the information presented in this column. Experts have agreed to provide their professional opinion on toddler nutrition related questions on a voluntary basis and no compensation is offered to them by Littlestomaks.com.

A few weeks ago, we picked up this USDA certified organic kids cereal from our local supermarket since we wanted to offer something new to our twins. We were pleased to see that it became an instant hit with them. It goes well with milk as a breakfast cereal. At other times, they also like to munch on it as a crunchy snack.

Good taste aside, this product has a modest 8g of sugar per serving, decent amount of fiber, no saturated fat or trans fat, no cholesterol and a good mix of vitamins and minerals. It is based on organic whole wheat grain and rice flour, so not an option for those with gluten intolerance or allergy. I would have liked to see even lower sodium than the 105 mg per serving. I don’t understand why salt has to be added to a dry, sweet cereal.  Still, overall I am quite happy with the nutritional value of this product compared to many other popular kids cereals on the market.

Apart from being organic, we liked it because we are also a big supporter of Cascadian Farms (disclaimer: I have not received any sponsorship from them to say this!). This is because they do seem to embrace the core idea behind organic farming and not just work the system to get the USDA Organic stamp on their products. Its founder, Gene Kahn, goes a long way back to the original organic movement – enough to merit a detailed feature in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Today, Cascadian Farms is a subsidiary of General Mills, and although surely Kahn has had to compromise on his ideals, his pragmatic pursuit of these ideals resonates with me a lot. I would love to find out more about Cascadian Farms firsthand.

One could argue that it is still processed food and that a large portion of the high cost is due to marketing and packaging. Point well taken, but cereal is a fact of every day life in America, clearly seen by the long aisles stocked with all kinds of cereals in a typical supermarket. It is not going anywhere anytime soon. So I would rather select something that resonates with me as a brand and provides good nutritional value.

Leave a comment if you found this review useful.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com

]]> http://www.littlestomaks.com/2009/08/produce-review-cascadian-farms-organic-kids-cinnamon-crunch/feed/ 0 http://www.littlestomaks.com/2008/11/kelloggs-nutrition-at-a-glance-is-worth-a-closer-look/ http://www.littlestomaks.com/2008/11/kelloggs-nutrition-at-a-glance-is-worth-a-closer-look/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:25:25 +0000 TwinToddlersDad http://www.littlestomaks.com/?p=236

If your toddler loves Kellogg’s Fruit Loops as much as our twins, you may want to take a closer look at the front of the cereal box. I think Kellogg has done a good job of adding an easy to understand Nutrition At A Glance^TM feature using their Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) right on the front of the box. The standard Nutrition Facts label showing the Daily Values (DVs) still appears on the back of the box. This new feature now appears on all of Kellogg’s cereals.

A simple and easy to read system

Even though Kellogg’s Nutrtion At A Glance looks very different from the Traffic Light Food Labeling system I wrote about recently, you can quickly see the serving size, total calories, total fat, sodium and sugars, and their percentage levels based on the GDAs. Additionally you can also see up to two more useful nutrients such as fiber, vitamins (A, C, E) and minerals (calcium, magnesium, potassium) and their percentages. This can help you understand the most important nutritional information quickly without having to read the detailed Nutrition Facts label at the back. You can also compare two different types of cereals before making a decision. However, do not compare a Kellogg cereal with another company’s cereal; say for example Cheerios® from General Mills. They use the Daily Values to calculate the percentages. Also, their serving sizes may be very different. This can be very confusing since there are no standard guidelines from the FDA for these types of the front-of-the-box labels. Therefore, it is a part of the marketing strategy by these companies to promote their products. Still, I think it is a step in the right direction.

But watch out for sugars

A word about the Fruit Loops though. A 1 cup (30 g) serving contains 13g of sugars, which is just a little too much in our opinion. You will notice that the front label does not show a percentage for the sugar because the recommended daily amount has not be established. While this is true, it has been suggested by the Institute of Medicine that not more than 25% of the total calories should come from added sugars. According to Kellogg’s website, this comes to about 125 g of sugars for a 2000 calories daily diet. Most toddlers need less than 1500 calories per day, so the maximum amount of sugars consumed throughout the day should be about 95g. A single serving of Fruit Loops will deliver close to 15% of the total sugars needed for the day. Just remember to cut down on fruit juices on the day you give Fruit Loops! We try to cheat and mix only a few of the colorful loops with Cheerios. Believe it or not, sometimes it does work!!

If you are giving your toddler a couple of cups of milk, vitamin D fortified orange juice, yogurt and cereal, and you take him out to play in the sun for 5 – 30 minutes each day, then there is no reason to worry. And if he has a taste for salmon and tuna, you are in really good shape. There is absolutely no need to grab that fancy multivitamin nutritional supplement on your next shopping trip. Balanced diet and an active, healthy lifestyle works like a charm!

There has been a recent buzz in the media about vitamin D deficiency among infants and toddlers. “Kids Aren’t Getting Enough Vitamin D” screams one headline, while “Vitamin D Deficiency Puts 40% of U.S. Infants and Toddlers at Risk” cries another. It is quite natural to be alarmed by such news; even I paid attention to it and started researching the topic to figure out if our twins were getting enough vitamin D each day.

It is worthwhile to get a little better understanding of why vitamin D deficiency is such a big deal. It is known to cause rickets (softening and twisting of bones in children). Vitamin D is important of absorption of calcium and phosphorus in bones to maintain their strength and proper development. Recent research is also showing that vitamin D plays an important role in prevention of diabetes, multiple sclerosis and certain cancers. It can also cause weakness in muscles if deficient. It seems to influence over 200 genes, including those that regulate cellular proliferation of both normal and cancer cells.

As I read more, I found myself fascinated by the incredible biochemistry that goes on in the body while processing vitamin D from various sources. Sunlight converts cholesterol from skin into vitamin D₃, which is converted inside the liver into another form (25-hydroxyvitamin D) and released into the circulating blood stream. Vitamin D fortified foods can contain D₃ and another form D₂, both of which end up in the liver for conversion to 25-hydroxyvitamin D. By the way, it is the level of this 25-hydroxyvitamin D that tells you if you have a vitamin D deficiency. If this level is between 30 – 60 ng/mL, you have no reason to worry! 25-hydroxyvitamin D now finds its way to the kidneys, where it is converted to the active form 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D under the influence of hormones from the parathyroid gland. This active form of vitamin D increases calcium absorption in the small intestine. Calcium and phosphorus absorbed in the small intestine are released in the blood, from where they are picked up by the bone cells for bone growth. 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin also regulates the growth and maturity of bone cells, which in turn release back the calcium and phosphorus in the blood to maintain their levels in the circulation system. The whole system works in harmony, promoting controlled bone growth!

You can continue to be vigilant by paying attention to what you buy. Remember that unless the label says Vitamin D fortified, orange juice, yogurt, cheese and cereals do not contain this vitamin. If you have a choice, go for Vitamin D₃ because it is three times more effective than Vitamin D₂ in conversion to 25-hydroxyvitamin D. If the label simply says Vitamin D, then most likely it is Vitamin D₂.

Here are some of the products we use regularly. Looking at them, and how much our twins are getting overall each day, I am not worried about Vitamin D deficiency.

Are you still worried?

If so, discuss with your pediatrician. Depending upon your specific case, you may be able to get advice about a nutritional supplement.

Here are some links for more information:

1. A very technical article in the New England Journal of Medicine
2. Dietary supplement fact sheet on Vitamin D from NIH