Best Immune System Vitamins for Kids This Winter

Key Points:

• Your child’s immune system plays a critical role in keeping them healthy throughout the year.
• To boost their immune health, your little one needs enough of the right immune system vitamins for kids.
• Kids' immune support starts with a healthy diet high in fresh fruit and vegetables, plus plenty of exercise and sleep.  
• Supplementing with a good multivitamin can help make sure your child gets all the vitamins and minerals they need.

With the cold and flu season looming on the horizon, not to mention the ever-present pandemic, it’s a really good time to think about boosting your child’s immune system. After all, keeping them in school (and, as a side bonus, out of your hair) is probably a priority for you. Luckily, there’s help at hand: immune system vitamins for kids.

Let’s look at why a healthy immune system is so important and which vitamins and minerals can help provide immune support for your little one. Getting enough of the right stuff can make a massive difference to kids’ immunity and their general health and give you peace of mind.

Why Your Child’s Immune System Needs Support

By now you’re (hopefully) taking all the precautions you can to protect your child from COVID-19. If they’re back at school though, they’re almost certainly in contact with other children and being exposed to all sorts of other germs. As much as you might want to, you can’t protect them from everything. That said, the stronger your little one’s immune system, the better they’ll be able to fight off those common colds and coughs.

How to Boost Your Child’s Immune Health

When it comes to kids’ immune support, there’s a lot you can do to make a difference. For starters, make sure they’re getting a healthy diet of whole foods, including plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Veggies and fruit are full of immune-boosting antioxidants as well as many other essential vitamins and minerals.

If your little one is a picky eater, you may need to resort to creative ideas to get them to eat healthy food, like making veggies fun. You can also support your little one’s immune system with a good dietary supplement. Luckily, immune system vitamins for kids now come in child-friendly forms like chewable gummies.

It’s worth noting that kids’ immune systems also respond well to physical activity, getting enough sleep, and practicing mindfulness to manage ongoing stress and anxiety, which are known to negatively affect the immune system.

If your little one’s immune system is still not up to par, consult your pediatric healthcare provider. In fact, it’s a good idea to do that anyway, before you add any supplements to your child’s diet.

Best Immune System Vitamins for Kids

While your child needs an array of vitamins and minerals to support their overall health, these are some of the most important for immune health:

Probiotics and Prebiotics

Keeping your child’s gut healthy creates a strong foundation for overall health. It helps with nutrient absorption, boosts their immune system, and helps to maintain mental health. Remember: The key to gut health is getting enough beneficial bacteria in the form of probiotics and enough prebiotic fiber to feed that good bacteria.

Breast milk is an excellent source of healthy microbes and gives your baby a good start. Then once your little one moves onto solid foods, include probiotic-rich, fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, and buttermilk in their diet — or if your child is adventurous, try sauerkraut or pickles (especially if they’re made with apple cider vinegar). They’ll also need fresh fruit and veggies, as well as legumes and whole grains to supply enough prebiotics to feed the probiotics.

To top up on probiotics and prebiotics, consider a supplement like Llama Naturals Probiotic and Prebiotic Gummies for Kids. They’re organic, really delicious, and taste like the peaches and mangoes that went into them.

Vitamin A and Vitamin C

Vitamin C might be the vitamin most often associated with immune health, but both vitamins A and C are antioxidants. They protect your little one’s cells from harmful free radicals and boost immune function.

You’ll find these immune system vitamins for kids in many whole foods, especially berries and green veggies like spinach and broccoli. Strawberries and citrus fruit are especially high in vitamin C, and sweet potatoes, carrots, and dairy products are particularly good sources of vitamin A.

What child doesn’t like berries mixed into yogurt with a little honey, or sweet orange segments eaten by hand with juice running down their face?

Tip: If your little one isn’t a fan of green veggies, try disguising them by blending them into mashed potatoes to make “magic green potatoes”.

As a bonus, these vitamin A and vitamin C-rich foods are also high in other important nutrients like zinc, potassium, magnesium, and folate.

Vitamin D

Research shows that Vitamin D helps to prevent and treat infections. It modulates your little one’s innate and adaptive immune systems and helps them fight off all manner of unhelpful bugs. As a bonus, vitamin D also helps them absorb calcium, keeping their bones and teeth strong.

Vitamin D comes mainly from sunshine, so let your child run around outside as much as possible. That said, if it’s really hot and they’re covered in sunscreen (as they should be in summer), or it’s the middle of winter, getting enough vitamin D might be tricky. 

Some foods contain some vitamin D, but not enough, so it’s really worth considering a supplement like Llama Naturals Vitamin D3 Gummies for Kids. They’re sourced from Shiitake Mushrooms, but your child will never know because they’re also packed with taste-disguising real raspberries.

Black Elderberry

Elderberry is an ancient remedy that’s been used to treat coughs, colds, and infections for thousands of years. High in several immune system vitamins, including vitamins A, vitamin C, and potassium, it’s a general immune booster that’s been proven to reduce the duration and symptoms of colds. 

Llama Naturals Elderberry Immunity Gummies for Kids are packed with organic elderberry extract, as well as immunity-boosting vitamin C and zinc.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 fatty acids have so many benefits. As well as keeping your child focused and calm, fighting off depression and anxiety, and protecting their eyes, omega-3s also have antioxidant properties to support your little one’s immune health.

Oily fish like salmon and sardines are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Bear in mind though that salmon are often heavily contaminated, so we recommend vegan supplements and plant-based sources instead. On the plant-based side, your little one might enjoy snacking on walnuts or mashed avocado on toast. And you can hide seeds like chia, flax, and pumpkin seeds in many different foods, like yogurt or mashed veggies.  

What to Look for in Immune System Vitamins for Kids 

A good multivitamin can do wonders for your child’s immune health. Look for one that contains many of the immune system vitamins for kids mentioned above. Other helpful additions you might find in some multivitamins are selenium, Echinacea, and calcium. On the flipside, watch out for added sugar and artificial ingredients — natural is always best.

For example, Llama Naturals Plant-Based Multivitamins for Kids gives the system a boost. Imagine an organic, strawberry-flavored, chewable gummy packed with 13 essential plant-based vitamins — including vitamins A, C, D, E and K1, plus B1, B2, B6, B12. That’s delicious in so many ways.

All Llama Natural’s products are made from real fruit and veggies, slow-cooked to preserve the nutrients. Because fruit provides natural sweetness, our products don’t have added sugar or artificial sweeteners. They’re also free of artificial colors and flavors, contain no gelatin and they’re gluten-free too. And best of all, kids love our great-tasting immune support gummies so much, they’ll be begging you for more.

Support Your Child’s Health With Immune System Vitamins for Kids

Your child’s immune system is the key to keeping them healthy and strong so they can fight off common colds, flu, and other infections they might be exposed to. Immune system vitamins for kids can help to boost their immune health naturally.

Start with a healthy diet that includes lots of fresh fruit and veggies, and make sure they get good sleep and plenty of exercise. 

To make sure they get all the nutrients and minerals their growing body needs though, try a dietary supplement like Llama Naturals gummies. Your little one will love them, and you’ll know they’re getting all the immune support they need.

 

Llama Naturals is a plant-based nutrition brand that has created the World's First Whole Fruit Gummy Vitamins that are made with no added sugar and whole-food vitamins. They are USDA Organic, Vegan, Gluten-Free, free of common allergens, and are slow-cooked on low heat to retain rich phytonutrients & fruit flavor. It’s a win-win gummy vitamin that you and the family will love.