This article is written in partnership with ChildLife Essentials^®. They’re on a mission to improve, enhance, and support your child’s health, for life. We’re honored to work with them. ~ ed.

I don’t know how it happened, really.

I’ve subscribed to 12 different “parenting” newsletters in the past year alone. No wonder my mind—and my inbox—feels cluttered.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with seeking advice from experts. Raising small people is a confusing job and it seems to require even more expertise these days.

Parents and caregivers today are constantly bombarded with information about, well…everything child-related. One topic that can be especially tricky to navigate is childhood nutrition—in particular, supplementation.

Do we need to supplement our children’s diets? If so, how much, with which nutrients exactly, and from which brand? Do they really need multivitamins? How do we know what to look for? Who to trust?

Childhood nutrition: a case for filling the gaps.

There are four building blocks that help lay a strong foundation for your child’s development >>

There’s plenty of debate around the topic of multivitamins and supplementation in general. It gets even more complex when it comes to nutritional supplements for children.

Children are constantly growing, changing, moving—from the time they’re born right through to young adulthood. During each crucial stage of their early lives, they have important and variable nutritional and energy requirements. At the same time, their eating habits and preferences can fluctuate wildly, potentially interfering with healthy nutrition.

Some say children should comfortably get all they need from their diets alone. However, even for those children who do have access to a consistently healthy and balanced diet, selective and appropriate supplementation can be beneficial to fill nutritional gaps caused by things like disruptions to daily routine and the commonly inconsistent eating behaviors of childhood.

That said, many children today are simply not getting appropriate levels of nutrition from their diets, which are increasingly disproportionate in highly processed foods, low in essential nutrients, and high in sugar.

Our Kids Deserve More: Protect & Support their Growth with the “Non-Gummy Gummy™” they’ll actually enjoy taking >>

Then, there are modern environmental factors like the pollution in our air, additives in our food, and microplastics in…everything. These place children under an unprecedented level of environmental stress, starting even before birth. Many holistic physicians correlate this with higher levels of allergic, neurological, and auto-immune disorders.

A 2005 study by the Environmental Working Group, for example, found microplastics and industrial chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of 12 different women in 12 different states.

Top that with a widespread lack of the right kind of environmental input, like contact with friendly-bacteria-rich soil and healthy amounts of time spent outdoors, and we seem to have concocted a rather problematic recipe.

We also need to take into account the particular challenges that our children are facing at this point in time, and for the foreseeable future:

1. Increased screen time as a result of continued remote learning, which comes on top of their already high use compared to previous generations.
2. Decreased time outdoors and amongst peers, potentially negatively impacting healthy immune system development, especially in older children.

Why it’s important to choose expert-formulated children’s supplements.

Given the “Wild West” that is the wellness industry today, few brands have the kind of expert-level product development and formulation we all want to be assured of when it comes to something as precious as our children’s health.

Add to that the critical and limited windows involved in childhood development and it becomes doubly important to seek expert-level support to ensure optimal nutrition, dosage, and delivery for the benefit of our children.

There are also different dietary recommendations for young children, older children, and adults for certain vitamins and minerals. Expert formulators will take this into consideration when formulating children-specific supplements.

Dr. Murray Clarke: the Pediatrician who saw a need for better children’s supplements.

Strengthen your Child’s Foundation: Give them the Expert-Formulated Essentials they Need >>

After practicing as a Holistic Pediatrician in the U.S. for many years, Dr. Clarke began to see a worrying pattern amongst his young patients.

It became clear to him that this pattern was a direct result of our modern lifestyles and diets, and he recognized the need for better nutritional support to combat the rise in these unhealthy side-effects.

Dissatisfied with the prevalence of unnecessary additives, high sugar levels, and general inconsistency of children’s nutritional supplements available, Dr. Clarke decided to develop his own line of products.

He founded ChildLife Essentials® on a mission to make supplements he would feel confident giving to his own family, as well as the patients he cared for.

“Over the years, in my clinic, I noticed that more and more children were suffering from conditions like allergies, asthma, eczema, attention deficit, hyperactivity, and learning disorders.

According to a recent large-scale study, we’ve gone from 40 years ago, 1 in 50 children in America suffering from some type of lifelong medical condition that they need to be treated for, to 1 in 5 children today.

We need to do something to help protect, neutralize, and support children these days and that’s where we go to what are the essential nutrients: the vitamins, the minerals, the essential fatty acids. These are the real building blocks of what every child requires every day in the right amount to grow properly, to function properly, and to develop properly.” ~ Dr. Murray Clarke, D.Hom., M.Hom., L.Ac.

Listen in: Ginger Chan interviews Dr. Clarke about children’s health needs today >>

What are the most common Western childhood deficiencies seen by doctors today?

The typical Western diet includes an abundance of highly processed, nutrient-deficient foods, and relatively little in the way of fresh fruits and vegetables.

It follows that common deficiencies seen by pediatricians like Dr. Clarke include Vitamin D, iron, probiotic diversity and quantity, choline (an essential nutrient that supports overall health and cognition), and DHA (an Omega-3 fatty acid abundant in the brain and lacking in most of our diets, especially plant-based ones).

Additionally, children are spending less time outdoors (even before repeated lockdowns) which lowers the contribution of cutaneous Vitamin D synthesis to overall Vitamin D levels.

Children’s nutritional needs change over time. ChildLife Essentials® formulate their products to suit these various stages of development, as well as children’s unique taste preferences.

SoftMelts® is their “Non-Gummy Gummy™” for older children. Why “Non-Gummy”? Because older children often have things like retainers to contend with, and traditional gummies stick in their teeth.

That’s not the only problem with traditional children’s gummies, though. They also tend to be packed with sugar. On the other hand, most sugar-free options out there can have unpleasant-tasting artificial sweeteners or not enough natural sweetness to make them appealing to fussy young folks.

Just like their nutritional needs, children’s palates are different from those of adults’, and, as a practicing pediatrician, Dr. Clarke has had the opportunity to get his carefully-formulated products taste-tested by children themselves.

ChildLife Essentials® SoftMelts® are easy to chew on, don’t get stuck in teeth, and are formulated with natural and sugar-free sweetening agents such as Stevia and Xylitol which are friendliest to young tastebuds and tummies.

The four products in this range address older children’s unique nutritional requirements and modern lifestyle challenges. They’re especially good for children with allergies, too, because they’re gluten-free, non-GMO, and contain no fillers, artificial colors, sweeteners, or additives.

1. Essential Vitamins & Minerals

Vitamins and minerals are the foundation of nutritional wellbeing, especially for children who not only absorb environmental toxins much more readily than adults but are also “under construction.” They’re building bigger bodies and brains every single day.

ChildLife Multi Vitamin SoftMelts® provide 10 essential vitamins and minerals older children need to thrive in one delicious, orange-flavored tablet a day.

2. Immune System Support.

The result of those environmental stressors children are constantly bombarded with even before day one? Lowered “immune tolerance” because their immune systems are having to deal with more things. Antioxidant vitamins are, therefore, even more essential to their body’s ability to build resilience against things that may otherwise “trip up” their immune system.

ChildLife® Elderberry Super-Immune SoftMelts® provides a unique combination of immune-supporting ingredients in each tasty tablet for optimal immune support.*

3. Brain Growth.

Children’s brains are growing a lot faster than those of adults. They’re developing, learning, and keeping up with day-to-day functioning, all at the same time.

ChildLife® Omega-3 DHA + Choline SoftMelts® provide an easy and delicious way to take in essential nutrients growing children need. The formula includes Omega-3 fatty acids DHA & EPA, Choline, and Vitamin D3, all of which support overall health and development for healthy bodies and minds.

4. Healthy Vision.

Parents today are becoming more concerned with their children’s visual health. Constant exposure to electronic devices is a 21st-century habit, of which the long-term effects are yet to be well understood. As blue-light radiation becomes a topic of concern for parents, children’s supplements should offer the best ingredients for supporting optimal visual system health. ChildLife® Healthy Vision SoftMelts® provide four powerful nutrients to support eye health and protect your children’s eyes.

ChildLife Essentials® was not just built on professional expertise. It was built on a deep understanding of just how complex and demanding raising children in today’s world is.

Their purpose from the start has been to combine what actually works for children’s needs and what they will actually enjoy taking.

So that’s at least one thing we parents and caregivers can safely take off our “list of things to worry about.”

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.