Short answer: usually yes. When your child takes both a vitamin D product and a multivitamin, the main thing is to add up how much vitamin D they get in total. The packs give you the numbers in a couple of minutes.
How much vitamin D is recommended for children?
In Finland, children aged 2 to 17 are recommended a vitamin D supplement of 7.5 µg a day all year round, not just in winter. The reason is light: here the skin makes vitamin D mainly in summer. Many families already give their child a vitamin D product. When a multivitamin with vitamin D joins in, it's good to know where the total lands.
How to add up the total
Check the nutrient table on both packs for the amount of vitamin D in micrograms (µg) per daily dose. Add them together.
An example with our vitamin:
- Ayaka multivitamin: 5 µg of vitamin D3 (100 % of the EU nutrient reference value)
- A vitamin D product with a 7.5 µg dose
- Total: 12.5 µg a day
The European Food Safety Authority EFSA has set the tolerable upper intake level for vitamin D at 50 µg a day for ages 1 to 10 and 100 µg for ages 11 to 17. The 12.5 µg in the example is well below it. The upper level covers all intake together. Vitamin D from food counts towards it too.
If your child takes more than one product with vitamin D, fish oil for example, count those as well.
Should you stop the vitamin D product?
No need. Ayaka fits alongside a vitamin D product. It has 5 µg of vitamin D, so the total stays well below the safe upper level. You can keep your child's current vitamin D product as it is.
The amount of vitamin D varies between other multivitamins. So always check the number on your own pack.
What about vitamin A?
Vitamin A is the other nutrient worth keeping an eye on when your child takes more than one product. A regular vitamin D product usually has no vitamin A. Some fish liver oils and multivitamins do, though.
Ayaka has 200 µg RE of vitamin A (25 % of the reference value). EFSA's safe upper level for preformed vitamin A is 800 µg a day for ages 1 to 3 and 1,100 µg for ages 4 to 6. The level rises with age. Don't give two multivitamins at the same time.
What time of day?
You can give both at the same time, at breakfast for example. Vitamin D is fat-soluble, so it makes sense to take it with a meal. The same moment every day is also the easiest way to remember.
Ayaka is a chewable tablet taken once a day.
When you're unsure
If your child takes several products, has an illness or takes medication, ask your child health clinic or school nurse about the whole picture. Take the packs with you so the question is easy to answer.
In short
- A vitamin D product and a multivitamin can usually be given on the same day.
- Add up the vitamin D amounts from the packs.
- Ayaka fits alongside a vitamin D product, so there's no need to stop your child's current one.
- Don't give two multivitamins at once.
Read also: Where to get vitamin D: food sources for the whole family
Why Ayaka?
With Ayaka, your child decorates their own glass jar with stickers. The jar becomes their thing. The idea is that the vitamin becomes a routine your child owns, not something parents have to remind them about. Ayaka has 12 vitamins and minerals. A refill comes through the letterbox once a month.
More on reading labels: How to read a kids' multivitamin label. The nutrient table is on the product page.
