EP 33: Multivitamins vs. Vegetables: Are Kids Really Missing Nutrients?

Could your child’s multivitamin be giving you peace of mind without actually fixing the nutrient gaps you’re worried about? In this episode of Nutrition for the Early Years, Dr. Liz Daniels explains why multivitamins are not “vegetable insurance” and what growing kids truly need for healthy development. She breaks down the role of carbs, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and key nutrients like vitamin D, vitamin E, iron, potassium, and omega-3s. You’ll also learn why food can offer nutrients in ways supplements often cannot, plus simple ways to improve your child’s nutrition without forcing vegetables or overhauling every meal. Most importantly, Dr. Daniels shares when picky eating is normal, when nutrient gaps may need extra attention, and when it’s time to talk with your pediatrician.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why a multivitamin is not a replacement for vegetables
• Which nutrients picky eaters are actually most likely to miss
• Why kids need carbs and fats for healthy growth, not just protein
• How foods can help the body absorb nutrients better than supplements
• Simple ways to fill common nutrition gaps without forcing veggies or overhauling meals

Related: Iron Deficiency in Babies episode:

Apple podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-31-iron-deficiency-in-babies-why-borderline-is-not/id1865258075?i=1000778509340
YouTube - https://youtu.be/FXVgNjIyrpE

Episode highlights:
(1:22) Why multivitamins are not vegetable insurance
(2:29) What “picky eating” really means
(4:49) The macronutrients kids need for growth
(7:27) Why micronutrients matter for development
(9:01) What is actually inside kids’ multivitamins
(12:10) Fat-soluble vitamins and why food pairing matters
(15:45) Where kids get B vitamins and vitamin C
(16:30) Important minerals kids need
(18:16) What vegetables really provide
(21:36) Potassium and a common nutrition gap
(23:58) Fiber needs and easy food swaps
(25:32) Vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids
(27:39) Vitamin D and when supplements may help
(28:24) Iron needs in growing children
(29:43) How to assess your child’s diet without panic
(31:07) Building comfort with fruits and vegetables over time
(32:43) The biggest takeaway for parents of picky eaters

NEW COURSE! "Read the Pattern: Feeding Your Baby 0–4 Months" — because a healthy relationship with food starts earlier than most people think. Course Link!

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only, not medical advice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I hear this in my office all the time. My kid's super picky and they might be missing something. So I just got the best kid multivitamin that I could get. If that's you or your spouse, then settle in because we need to talk. Not because your kid is the problem, but because somewhere along the way, you got sucked into thinking that because your kid doesn't like veggies, they must be missing some important nutrients. Plus, companies reinforce it by marketing that behavior and sleep and learning and development will all be magically better with their product. Today we are diving deep into what multivitamins actually offer, what veggies offer, and how I close nutrient gaps for my patients without the overpriced, undernourishing vitamin trap. And you can too. Welcome back to the Nutrition for the Earliers podcast with me, your host, Dr. Liz Daniels. I'm a nutrition first kinopediatrician, and this podcast is for the parent who's second-guessing their grocery cart, worrying if their kid is gonna end up with the same food struggles that they once had. I love getting into the weeds of what kids actually need, and then putting it into context of where they're at in growth and development so you can let go of the shame and guilt and focus on what actually moves the needle together. Let's get into it. Welcome back to Nutrition for the Earliers Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Lewis Daniels, your nutrition-focused pediatrician here to give you guilt-free guidance for feeding your family well. So today I'm gonna back up the claim that I often say in the office, which is multivitamins aren't vegetable insurance. We're gonna talk about this because I think it's hard to understand this until you really understand what kids, number one, actually need for growth. And number two, what the differences are between veggies and multivitamins. Because there's a couple of breakdowns in logic that I see happening, and I wanna kind of address it simply because I talk about this so much, but I also don't think it's fair to not give full context to it. All right. So we're gonna talk about that, and then we're gonna close out with a couple of practical ways that you can address potential nutrient gaps in your own household without overhauling your entire kid's diet. So let's kind of set the scene. All right, like I have families often who come into the office, and as we're going through the checkup, they'll ask me my opinion on a multivitamin, or maybe they will, you know, kind of share that their kids on a multivitamin so they feel a little bit better about how their kids picky. And there's a couple things here. First of all, you gotta understand what you think pickiness actually is. Because some people think that it's just volume-based or variety-based. Like there's no great definition for pickiness. But for today's purpose, a lot of people think my kids picky because they don't like veggies. And I hear that, but I wouldn't necessarily put that in the same category. And I'll tell you why. Pickiness is subjective. It there's not a great definition for it. If you say my kid doesn't like all of the veggies except for this one, then that's much more clear. And when I'm thinking about these questions, the question that I'm going through in my head is if I understand what a kid needs for growth based on their developmental stage, which I kind of try to live with that in my head, and is not your job, but hear me out. I live with that in my head. And then as I'm asking questions and putting things together, I am assessing for if I need to address a nutrient gap. Why? Why does this matter? Why do I even care? Because at different developmental stages, our bodies require specific nutrients to do those developmental stages. It's precisely why I chose pediatrics after being a dietitian. Because development needs nutrition. And you already know that if you're listening to this podcast, but what you might not know is what nutrition it needs. For maintenance and for um, you know, prevention of degradation of tissues, adults need very different things than kids. So we can't really apply our adult logic to this, okay? When we think about a kid, what do they need for growth? Well, we're gonna kind of put the boundaries on this about like two to 10 age kids, right? So in these ages, you need macronutrients and micronutrients at specific ratios and proportions. And to get even more nitty-gritty, they're a little bit different depending on your ages. We kind of break it down in the you know, preschool years, early school, you know, preteen, teen, there's different categories. And you'll see if you look closely into the recommended daily allowances for things or the DRIs, you're gonna see a little difference between how much they need and you know each stage. But globally, we're gonna talk about this because the nutrient gaps that I see in these ages kind of stay consistent. Therefore, my conversation about if we need a multivitamin or not kind of stays consistent. So for growth, kids need macronutrients. Now, macro is big. You probably already know this again, if you're listening to this podcast, but just to reiterate, we're thinking carbohydrates, fat, and protein. Water is actually a macronutrient, too, by the way, but we're thinking about that in terms of um caloric energy sources. In kids, really, we need a lot of carbohydrate. It's really their foundation for growth. It just is. It's not protein. Sorry to break it to you. It is really carbohydrate. They need at least 55% of their calories from carbohydrate, often more, the majority of it from carbs, because of all those vitamins and minerals. And guess where all of our vitamins and minerals for growth and for brain development are? They're really in those carbohydrate sources, our fruits, our veggies, yes, but a lot of it in our grains and beans. Okay. Now, I'll break that down a little bit more and to say that the macronutrient ratio for fat then is about 35%. And fat's really important because it's not just the calories of fat, it's the types of fat that we're offering. And within fat sources, we absorb our fat-soluble vitamins a lot better. We're gonna talk about that in a second. So, carbohydrates, the foundation. You call back to the old food guide pyramid, anyone? And then the second layer to that would be your fats. And then above that would be your protein. Kids, growing kids, need about one gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. Yes, that's might, maybe less than what you are aiming for in your own diet, but that's part of the reason that it feels so disparate from you. Okay, lean into that and be okay with it. For example, just the other day I had a family who the dad asked me, okay, she's in for a checkup and she's 42 pounds. Dad's asking me how much protein she needs. We did a quick calculation, 21 grams, figured out that she was getting about 80% of her protein needs by 8 a.m. with her milk and her egg. Almost, I mean, just really closing that gap. Just to kind of illustrate, protein is essential, yes. And we want to make sure it's good quality protein with our essential amino acids. So I do recommend some of those animal sources. You don't have to be full on cardivore, that's not the goal. Just simply saying the protein is the smaller piece on the top. We actually don't need a ton of that for growth. This is counterintuitive because so many parents think, or at least what I hear in my office, is that parents will think, I need they need like they need protein for growth. And they're not bodybuilders. They actually need carbs and fat for growth. Okay, hill I'm gonna die on. Now, the reason for this is because of our micronutrient distribution. When you think about those developmental stages that our kids are going through in their early years, they are laying down a lot of tissue. They are growing vertically, which means that we are adding bone, we are adding, you know, fat mass, but also muscle mass, yes. But we need a lot of energy to do that. And we get that in our carbs and fat. Plus, laying down tissue requires enzymatic function. Well, what do enzymes need? They need B vitamins, they need fat-soluble vitamins, and they need minerals because all of those functions, all of those cellular processes, are where our micronutrients come into play. Now, micronutrients we need for growth. We categorize these into fat-soluble, water-soluble vitamins, minerals, and trace minerals. We use these for multiple functions in the body. So each one of our micronutrients, whether it's a vitamin or a mineral, serves many jobs. Okay, they all have a lot of roles. But the thing to understand about them is not just that you need them, it's to understand that you need to absorb them. And let's let's illustrate this a little bit more. You can get a multivitamin that has those things in them. However, I would argue that we do a much better job understanding where we get those vitamins in our food. Because, as we'll discuss later, the food matrix is essential for absorption. Okay, so here's the thing. I hear you. Now you're like, okay, well, what is in a multivitamin? Let's talk about that. One of the most commonly purchased multivitamins that I see is a particular gummy that I will not name as the brand, but it's a gummy that's found on the shelves of pretty much every grocery store. And it has a lot of C and B vitamins, and it has some vitamin A in the form of retinal palmitate. Sometimes it'll have things that are, you know, other types of minerals. Sometimes it'll have some minerals in there that look really good, and it'll say on the label, immunity blend, or it'll say on the front cover, you know, some type of thing that will make you think this is going to help my kid. They're targeting certain kind of fears that I think parents have. And, you know, the trouble here is that what's in the label isn't necessarily wrong, but you have to understand that these aren't regulated. There's no consistency necessarily from dose to dose. I don't know who's actually looking at that and analyzing how much zinc is in one versus another versus their claim. But there's no food matrix. So part of the challenge is that when you get these, you may or may not be absorbing them in great abundance. And the other problem here is that they have a lot of B vitamins in them. And B vitamins are water soluble. So I think a lot of people may think, and even some doctors may think, okay, well, you'll just pee out excess. So it's okay. But bear in mind that like B vitamins are like the hot trend because everyone says that they're your energy complex. And so you see it on waters. I see supplements all the time, supplemental B vitamins added to foods all the time, even kids' foods. And the challenge is that if you're doing this for you and your kids eating all of your food or drinking all of your propel or some of your other water that's in energy water, you know, like these are going to add up. Okay. And sometimes we don't always absorb these in the right ratios. And you actually can store some of these B vitamins. And I know because I will draw levels sometimes on kids, and I'm surprised. Sometimes we're in really high amounts of B9 or even B12 that are in some of these vitamins. And that's not great for our kids. So there can be risk from taking multivitamins in this broken logic, thinking, well, they don't like veggies, so I need to get them their vitamins because you're afraid they're going to miss something, or you're afraid that their behavior or their learning is going to be negatively impacted if you don't buy this product. But the reality is that our bodies are so smart and so good at absorbing what we're getting in our food. So while it's not the convenient answer to say, understand what they're getting, it doesn't have to be something that you do. I would just implore you to like, if you're worried enough about your kids' nutrition that you're going to go buy a multivitamin, just take a step back and ask yourself, what are they actually eating? Because if you understand what they're eating, or you talk to somebody who does this for a living and can understand what they're eating and give you that interpretation, then it's a much better opportunity to really understand if there's a nutrient gap you do need to address. Fat-soluble vitamins are things like A, D, E, and K. And fat-soluble vitamins are really important for a lot of functions. Vitamin A is used for, you know, stem cell and skin different cell differentiation. So as a cell is kind of maturing along its process, you are literally developing new kinds of tissues as your kids growing, and you need vitamin A for that. You also need it for neurotransmitter function, you need it for vision development, you need it for all kinds of functions within there. Okay. We also need vitamin D for bone mineralization, we need vitamin K for other functions, but primarily blood clotting and for um, you actually need it for bone mineralization as well and for immune development. We need these in lots of ways. But the thing to understand about them is that they are really well absorbed in food. They are fat soluble, which means that they need to be absorbed in fat in order to be brought into the cell wall. They don't just walk right in. There's receptors on the stomach's lining, you know, in the small intestinal cells that are required. They kind of are like bouncers, like they protect the cell from damage. And they also regulate who comes into the cell. So our fat-soluble vitamins need fat to be absorbed. Case in point being, you think carrots are great because they have vitamin A. And that's true, they do. But we get vitamin A in lots of sources. I'm gonna say this in a different way. Let me let me say this in a different way. Vitamin A is really key because we need it for all these things, like I illustrated, and it is found in a fair amount of sources. Yes, it's found in things like, you know, orange veggies, but it's also found in meats. It's also found actually in egg yolk. And so veggies aren't the only source for it. However, if your kid eats those veggies, they get absorbed much better when there's fat there. For example, carrots are great. And you might think, okay, it's a win my kid's eating carrots. But the beta-carotene has to get converted to, which is like the vitamin A in a carrot, has to get converted over to an active form of vitamin A, retinol, in order to actually do its function in the body. But when it's eaten by itself, you don't absorb very much of it. When it's paired in contrast with, for example, guacamole, the fat that's in guacamole or in avocado actually synergistically helps absorb beta-carotene up to 12 times as much more than by itself alone. Meaning, fat is really important to absorb our vitamin, our fat slab of vitamins. And so we don't do this in a silo. It really needs the food matrix in order to be well absorbed. What do I mean by food matrix? That's really kind of like the cellular structure and the whole wall, the whole part to the food itself that helps with the absorption, especially when it's in a meal, because then you're getting macronutrient pairing that allows for that absorption along the way. Another great example of that is actually vitamin D and calcium. They go together. We want calcium, which is actually a mineral, which we're gonna talk about in a minute. And that vitamin, and that calcium is awesome, but the way to absorb calcium is actually with vitamin D, which is why we like it in milk and why I love having dairy for kids as an option, because it's really hard for us to absorb calcium without vitamin D. Now, as you as we go along, okay, so fat soluins are A, D, E, and K, water solutions are things like B and C. Water soluble vitamins are, yes, present in veggies, but we actually get a lot of B vitamins in our grains, in our legumes, um, in our nuts. So peanut butter and jelly, fantastic source of vitamin V. And not just one, but multiple types of B vitamins, because especially in grains that are fortified here in the US, a lot of those other things are added to it. It's a really helpful tool. Vitamin C, yes, can be found in oranges, but it's also in things like strawberries. It's also present in potatoes and in bananas. And sometimes you don't think about foods having vitamin C because they're not colorful and citrusy, but there's a lot of ways to get vitamin C. Now, let's think about the minerals a little bit more. So, our minerals, there's a lot of them, and we don't need to go into every single one of them, but they're things like calcium, iron, potassium, zinc, selenium, those minerals, things that you would see on the periodic table. Okay. And those minerals are important because they work with enzymatic functions in the body. So they are essential, and you do need to get them from food. However, they're not necessarily in high abundance in veggies. They're actually present in a lot of our meats and seafood, specifically iodine, for example, really only present in our shellfish, in our some of our seafood, and in iodized salt. And when I am thinking about, you know, this particular family who I was talking with, and they were thinking about veggies is, you know, my kid doesn't like veggies, so you know, we need to get a multivitamin. And I asked the question, like, what are you worried they're not going to get by not eating veggies? Like, what nutrient do you think they're missing? And there's usually crickets because a lot of times parents don't really know. And that's okay. I would say that's not your job. It really isn't. So hear me out though. Okay. When we throw a multivitamin at a kid, we end up, yes, giving them lots of minerals and vitamins. And it feels good on the label, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're absorbing everything that's in them. Okay. Now I hear you. You might be saying, okay, but Dr. Daniels, I get the really good multivitamins. I get the one that have veggies in them. And I love ya, but not the same. And I'm sorry, but it's really not. The thing that we're getting from our veggies is where I want to spend a little bit more time because this will help you understand why it's not the same. Okay. Veggies are good, but veggies are plants, right? And so think about what a plant is doing. A plant is going through photosynthesis, a plant stores its energy in the form of carbohydrate. And depending on the soil that it's growing from and growing in and where it is, how it functions, what it's kind of, you know, what it what it's doing in the environment, in the ecosystem, it's actually going to store energy in different forms, meaning that it's going to have different vitamins within it, but also different types of fibers. So veggies are actually our fiber. That's the primary thing that we're getting from them, not just B vitamins. So bear in mind that when our kids don't love veggies, they're maybe missing fiber, maybe missing some micronutrients, but arguably, especially here in the US, a lot of our dietary gaps are not in the things that we think veggies are going to provide. I'm going to talk about those gaps as well, but hear me when I say that your vegetables are primarily offering carbohydrates. They are offering complex carbohydrates. They are also offering phytochemicals or bioactive components that frankly are really good and really helpful, but not actually necessary for growth. And that one sucks to hear. But this is why it's really a long game. Okay. If my kid misses out on getting veggies for several years, it's not necessarily proven in the literature that their lifespan is going to be shorter. When we look at Mediterranean diet, we're comparing adults. We're comparing other families that are like long generational studies where they've built decades and they don't even start those until the kids are full grown. Meaning, again, it's not that those early years don't matter. They do. That's why this whole podcast exists. But what I'm communicating is that the phytochemicals that are in there are important for the plants for survival and they're helpful for us. But we're not necessarily using those phytochemicals for growth and for development. Do we want them? Absolutely. But you're still gonna get phytochemicals in fruit. And the other thing that our veggies are gonna offer us are prebiotics, like the things that feed our gut bacteria. And while very helpful and important, also not like essential, essential for growth. Like your kids not going to end up in the hospital because they don't have prebiotic fibers. Okay. We want them, they're great, but they're worth working for, not gonna be replaced with a multivitamin. And yes, I hear it. We get the prebiotic fiber gummies. Cool story. That's one prebiotic fiber that's in there. It's not a complex array of them, okay? Which is what veggies are offering. So the next piece here that veggies are offering is water. Well, does your kid drink water? Probably. And then the other last little bit here is that our our veggies are going to be able to provide something that I do think is important and will be sort of like a moment to say, we're gonna have to come back to this in another podcast, but potassium. Potassium is um the only other thing that I would think about. It's a mineral, and it is actually really hard to get without veggies. In fact, I would say that it is one of the primary gaps in our American specifically toddler diet. And potassium has important implications, both in cell function. We use it for sodium potassium pumps, but it is essential and we need it. You Get it in a multivitamin, but guess what? Not really. You get like the teenest amount, not anywhere close to what you actually are looking for, what is recommended in a multivitamin. So multivitamins are not going to close our potassium gap. They will not. Show me one that does, and I would be floored, but like it can't. It just doesn't fit into the chemical structure. It's hard to make, it's a whole chemistry mess. So the only real thing that you could tell me that a veggie is going to give my kid that they're not going to be getting, that they're going to like have a nutrient gap in that they will not be getting anywhere else would be potassium. Unfortunately, not going to be met with a multivitamin. So part of the reason why, again, I would say your kid might have nutrient gaps, but we need to understand what theirs are and then uniquely design our intervention if we need to based on what they have a gap for. Long-winded way of saying, I don't give my kids multivitamins, never really did, and you don't have to. However, if your kid is struggling with any food group and they're eating in an they're missing an entire food group, it's time to have a conversation. If your kid is anxious about eating at the table and there's a real stress level and they only have a couple of safe foods and it is a really tough thing, and you are struggle, struggle, struggle, or if your kid is falling off the growth curve, those are absolute conversations and red flags to talk to your pediatrician about. But if they're growing and they're thriving, but they just don't like broccoli, I think we can move on. Okay, so now I kind of want to pivot and talk a little bit about like in traditional sort of American diet, like what is it that kids tend to lack and how can we meet that gap? Like, how do I do this with my patients? For example, this particular family, where they were like, our kid doesn't eat veggies. What do we do? And I said, Okay, well, after I analyzed the diet and like looked at what was in there, then I say, here's what we need. And I'm gonna tell you a couple of the things that I consistently see across the board in this age group, including my own children and the ways that I addressed it. Okay. Fiber. Yes, 95% of kids in the US do not get enough fiber. Well, how much do we need? Our typical rule of thumb is about five plus their age and years. So if you have a two-year-old, seven grams of fiber. If you have a 10-year-old, 17 grams of fiber. Now, this is one where you can kind of think about small changes that can make a big difference. It actually doesn't have to be that hard. And it also doesn't have to be with veggies. Is it good? Cool, yes, but not necessarily going to win with broccoli. Interestingly, a lot of times a single slice of bread is going to carry way more fiber than a whole cup of broccoli will. Okay. So again, a little bit more nuanced conversation. So the way I address my fiber gap, if I have one, is really to ask what they're already eating and find simple bridges that can sort of swap things over. So if my kid really loves waffles, I'm gonna maybe consider a certain waffle swap that I can do that can augment the fiber there. Or if my kid is really good at, you know, eating peanut butter and jelly, I might think about ways that I can sort of shift it there. You know, there's other ways that we can do that. Maybe my kid's really good at eating tacos. Okay, well, so then I think about ways I can get fiber in the tacos, beans. So that's kind of how I approach that. Okay. So fiber is one of the main gaps that we see in this age group. Again, not addressed with really any multivitamin, even fiber gummies, because they're gonna give you two grams of fiber per very expensive gummy, or even sometimes in our veggies. All right. So that's something important. The other one that we tend to see is actually vitamin E. Vitamin E is really important because we use vitamin E both as a neurotransmitter, it's important in making neurotransmitters, but it's also important in protecting neurons. So when your body is making a lot of neurons, it needs omega-3 fatty acids, which we're gonna get to, but it also gets protected. Those omega-3 fatty acids go into a neuron and they're in the cell membrane of a neuron, but they're protected by vitamin E. So without vitamin E, your omega-3 fatty acids maybe don't even get where they need to be or last in the neurona, in the neural tissue. You need both. And a lot of American kids really don't get enough vitamin E. Well, okay. Well, most multivitamins often don't offer enough vitamin E. Why? Because it's hard to get in there. It's also fat-soluble. So even if you did get it in there, are you gonna absorb it? Well, probably not. Guess what will? Seeds. Vitamin E is really valuable. It can be found in seed butters. One of my favorite ways is actually sunflower seeds and sunflower seed butter. So now, one of the other ones that I kind of want to go to is omega-3 fatty acids. Really important for neuronal development, really important in these younger years. And guess what? Also, like probably not in our multivitamin, like ever. Now, I'm gonna just have a little caveat and say more to come on omega-3 fatty acids in the future. But this is one where you can supplement. And the reason is because in a supplement, you're actually getting it, you're getting the fat. Like the fat itself is the supplement for it. Now, hear me though, because this is where I like to do these together. This is what I like about one of the recipes that'll be included in the show notes and one that I really, really like and go to. And that is omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E go really well together. So I love sunflower seed butter, I love hemp seeds and flax seeds and cheese seeds. These all are great sources of a super nutrient-dense way to get minerals plus some of these really important uh lipids and micronutrients altogether. The other one that I would say we tend to supplement, especially in the northern parts of the US where we don't get a lot of sunlight, especially not at the right angle, is vitamin D. Now, the trouble here is that vitamin D is also, by the way, not provided in multivitamins in very great abundance. It's also, guess what, not in our veggies. The only real good source for vitamin D is vitamin D fortified milk and fish. So fatty fish specifically. So this can be an area that ends up being a gap that needs to be treated specifically with a vitamin D supplement. Again, conversation for your pediatrician, conversation to think more deeply about what's going on in your kids' diet. Um, and then the last little piece here that I would say is a common nutrient gap that we sometimes have to address more individually, is iron. And this is much more heavily nuanced, whole different podcast on iron, already published. You can go look at it. But I think the key here is that this is sort of developmentally needed. Like there's different stages where iron is gonna be a real big need, and others where it's less of a need. And so, depending on the age of your kid and depending on what's going on in their diet, this one may be necessary to supplement. Again, the problem with multivitamins is that most of them don't have iron in them. And by the way, even if they did, if they also have calcium in there, you're gonna struggle because these do not get well absorbed together. So there's a reason that most multivitamins don't have them. Most multivitamins are really gonna have your B vitamins, maybe a couple of your fat soluble vitamins, and some minerals. And that's it. And that's not inherently wrong. It's just that the things your kid naturally is drawn towards, like probably some fruits, a lot of carbs, and some fatty foods, they're gonna have all those things already in it. So your kid is really probably doing very well with their Cheerio-focused, carbon fruit-centric diet. It's just important to understand what they're getting. Okay. All right. So, like, what's the takeaway? Let me kind of walk you through this process again. Like, let's go back to the exam room where I was talking to this family and we're talking about my kid doesn't like veggies, therefore I get this multivitamin and I feel better. Okay, hold up. But in my head, I'm saying, well, what does the kid like to eat? And and what are we doing? And if we're drinking a fair amount of milk and we're getting variety in our diet, meaning we get something in all of the different food groups and we're happy and we're doing well on the growth curve, honestly, I check the box. Because the goal isn't perfection. But here's where I would put my attention. I would ask myself, really and truly, are we enjoying eating together? And am I offering everything in variety? Am I offering different types of cheeses? Am I offering different types of fruits, different types of veggies, different types of grains? The easiest way to do that is to eat seasonally. So kind of sounds simply, but like when things are in season, we get what's in season. When things are not in season, it doesn't mean you don't have to get them, but it means that you kind of rotate through the cycles of the seasons because our spring fruits versus our fall fruits are gonna be pretty different in some of the micronutrients that they offer and really probably benefit your kid in the long run. And this is where we anchor in on the behaviors. So if your kid doesn't love veggies, that's okay, but every exposure counts. So how you set up and how you frame that engagement and that encounter, whether they are just selecting things at the grocery store with you or helping you cut up things that they don't even eat, those exposures to fruits and veggies add up over time. And that cumulative experience really does help support actually eating it in the long run. The other piece to this is that, you know, it is okay to put some of those veggies in foods that they already are eating really well. And I know there's a lot of people who don't like to sneak veggies in their kids, but it's a both and. Like you really can sneak things in and continue to offer them in the visible way that they naturally grow without being snuck into the food. We need both. We we need the opportunity to feel like as a parent we're doing right by our kids, and the opportunity to build a lifelong skill. Because at the end of the day, what we really want, and what I think this family really wants to see long term is that their kids enjoy eating veggies. And that's not something that we accomplish with a multivitamin. It's not something that we accomplish by running away from the frustration, it's something that we get to over years of practice and persistence at just being present with them and enjoying them ourselves. So while it may be frustrating to say, well, now what? If we don't do a multivitamin, then what do we do? You know. So here's the bottom line. If you find that your kid is not a huge fan of veggies and you feel kind of worried that your kid's missing something, I want you to just take a step back and observe. Notice what is it that you buy consistently in your home? Because it's most likely that if you go through those foods, you might be surprised at how much overlap there is between your multivitamin and the foods that your kids are naturally eating. And the real fix here is not in a pill, even though it feels really convenient. And I understand the like hope and the goal, especially if you have a kid who's really picky. But being patient and trying to understand if there is an actual gap that needs to be addressed is important. Because when we just throw a multivitamin at somebody who doesn't like veggies, we fail to understand that the gap that they may actually be experiencing is not being addressed in the first place. And that isn't your fault. That's not something that you're supposed to like inherently know, but it's something that if you are this worried, then maybe it's worthwhile to really understand where your kid's at. And you don't have to feel like you don't do anything for them. It's just trying to understand what your kid actually needs for growth and where they're at. I hope this was helpful. And, you know, if at the end of the day you find yourself unsure, but more importantly, I hope that this kind of absolves you of any guilt that you might be feeling if your kid doesn't like veggies. Because that season happens for a lot of people. It even happened for me and my kids, who, yes, eventually outgrow that. And that's my hope for you, that you can walk away from this feeling a little bit better, a little bit more just comforted and anchored knowing that you have been doing what you needed to be doing in the first place by caring, by showing up, and by modeling consistently a variety of foods. Now, if this is helpful, if this resonated, please hit subscribe, follow along, and share with a friend because the more families that can see this, the more families feel supported. Thanks so much. Have a good day. We'll see you next week.