Current Approaches to Standards of Care for Children: How Does the Pediatric Community Currently Approach This Issue?

Standards for the use of dietary supplements in infants, children, and adolescents should be based on data-driven determinations of daily requirements that are both age and sex specific, adverse consequences of current nutrient intake levels, determinations of a health benefit, and determinations of the presence or absence of adverse or toxic effects from supplementation. In the absence of this all-important evidence and data upon which to base standards for the use of supplements, we should therefore continue to rely on food to provide the necessary nutrients for appropriate growth and development and recognize that there is little, if any, evidence to recommend dietary supplementation for healthy children in the United States apart from those circumstances mentioned.