Understanding the Vitamin D Benefits of SMA® PRO Toddler Milk
This is a sponsored article with SMA Nutrition.
When Big Girl started nursery at the age of one, I was the mum who filled her school bag with ready-to-feed toddler milk every week. Instead of choosing a drink at snack time she was then served her toddler milk, as I didn’t want to miss any opportunity of her having milk fortified with vitamins.
It was particularly vitamin D that concerned me, and that’s why I also wanted to take an opportunity now to collaborate with SMA Nutrition on a sponsored post, as they’ve released their most advanced formula to date SMA PRO Toddler Milk, which includes iron, Omega 3 and 6, iodine and benefits from increased levels of vitamin D.
The background for the change made to the SMA Nutrition’s formulations is increased research into infant and toddler nutrition, and surveys have shown a large number of toddlers are not getting the recommended intake of Vitamin D to support growth and development of bones.
In 2014, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence issued new guidelines to prevent Vitamin D deficiency among at-risk group including infants and under 5s, and one of the points noted was to increase the awareness of the importance of Vitamin D.
The main source of Vitamin D is sunlight, but in addition to the fact that there is not sufficient sunlight in the UK over the winter months to meet our Vitamin D requirements, today’s insight into harmful effects of the sun’s UVA and UVB rays means under 3s are often protected from the sun.
In turn, nutrition plays an even more important part than it used to, putting pressure on parents to understand the importance of Vitamin D, which helps regulation of calcium and phosphorous.
For parents, it is all about ensuring children are getting the required dose through nutrition and supplements when exposure to direct sun light is limited.
Vitamin D is present in oily fish and liver, but not in fruit and vegetables, and research has concluded the food industry should play a role in providing products fortified with Vitamin D. A daily recommended serving of 2 x 200ml of the new SMA PRO Toddler Milk provides children aged one to three with 108% of their Vitamin D daily requirements.
Food for thought!
In addition to calcium and Vitamin D, SMA PRO Toddler Milk is fortified with iron to help support cognitive development and it contains essential fatty acids Omega 3 and 6, which are also important to support normal development and growth.* It also contains Iodine, to help support normal growth of children. At SMA Nutrition, the unique combination of ingredients included in their toddler milk is called Nutri-Steps®, as it is designed to support toddlers every step of the way as they grow.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: SMA® PRO Toddler Milk is suitable for young children from 1-3 years, as part of a healthy balanced diet and it is not a breast milk substitute. Breastfeeding should continue for as long as possible.
*The beneficial effect of essential fatty acids is obtained with a daily intake of 10g of Linoleic acid and 2 g of a-linolenic acid.
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