What To Do If You Think Your Child Overdosed
If you think your child took too many vitamins that may have contained iron, call the National Capital Poison Center right away at 1-800-222-1222. Staff at the poison center can notify a nearby emergency department that you are on the way to make sure they are prepared to treat your child ASAP. Or, poison center staff may send an ambulance so your child can get prompt treatment on the way to the emergency department.
If the vitamins did not contain iron, chances are youll be dealing with some GI upset and nausea. Be sure to give lots of fluids to replace the minerals your child might lose through vomiting or diarrhea. If you child seems to be getting worse, acting strange, or getting very tired and sluggish, call the poison center or 9-1-1 right away.
In any case, do not give your child any more vitamins or supplements until several days or weeks have passed. For example, if she ate 15 vitamins, dont give her any more until 15 days have gone by. If he ate 30 vitamins, he wont need any more until 30 days later.
Check out this article for ideas on how to store medications in your home so that children cant get into them.
Can Zinc And Vitamin C Be Taken Together
There are so many people out there who are taking multiple vitamins and minerals together without knowing their pros and cons. They consider supplementation as a task and so, in order to get rid of it, they take everything together. This is not a good thing. Public Health Expert and Dietitian Swati Bathwal explain that the composition and solubility of a nutrient should be taken into consideration when making combinations. Unless a nutrient isnt optimally absorbed, it wont provide any benefit to your body. Besides, the time of the day these are taken also affects absorption in some cases.
Absorption is the key factor for any supplement. Mixing two supplements may reduce the absorption that only goes waste. In addition to this, such combinations can cause adverse interactions that can harm your health.
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You Could Actually Get Too Many Vitaminsand Face Serious Side Effects
It is possible to overdose on certain vitamins, particularly fat-soluble ones like A, D, E, and K, as well as minerals like iron and zinc, says Lemond.
Keep in mind how much you should have includes your total intakefood, drink, and supplementsand not just those contained in the gummy vitamins, Lemond says. Check labels so you know how much youre getting.
While different nutrients could have different effects on the body, some common ones include diarrhea or vomiting. The big overarching problem is liver failure, Lemond says.
A sudden, high dose of some vitamins and/or minerals could be classified as a poisoning, she adds. Therefore, it is recommended to seek immediate medical attention.
The bottom line: You can absolutely overdose on gummy vitamins, so stick with the recommended serving size, k?
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What To Do If You Or Your Child Has Eaten Too Many Gummy Vitamins
If you think you or your child has taken too many gummy vitamins, here are some steps Daly recommends you take:
- Call the Poison Control number immediately: 222-1222.
- Try to document how many vitamins were taken and what time your child ingested them. It’s also a good idea to have the child’s height and weight so that toxicity can be determined.
- Follow Poison Control’s recommendations. They may even recommend you take your child to the ER where they monitor symptoms and flush out toxins.
If your child has consistently been taking above the recommended dosage of gummy vitamins for a long period of time, they may develop chronic toxicity, which warrants a trip to the doctor.
Signs of chronic toxicity include:
- Muscle and bone pain
Can You Overdose On Vitamins Watch For These Symptoms
Weve all heard the saying, Too much of a good thing is bad for you. But what about when it comes to vitamins? Can you ever really overdo them?
Yes, absolutely, said Dawn Gerber, PharmD, a clinical ambulatory pharmacy specialist with Banner Health. Basically, there are two types of vitamins: water-soluble and fat-soluble. Although your body can excrete large amounts of water-soluble vitamins, it holds onto fat-soluble vitamins, which can be toxic at high levels.”
Water-soluble vitamins, like vitamin C and B-complex, are carried to the bodys tissues and arent stored in your body. Fat-soluble vitamins, like A, D, E and K, are absorbed along with fats in your diet and are stored in your bodys fatty tissue and in the liver.
These get caught in our fat, the non-muscular parts of our bodies, Dr. Gerber said. The more supplements we take at high doses, the more that accumulates and isnt flushed out.
While its hard to overdose just eating these vitamins naturally with a well-balanced diet, vitamin supplements can have negative ramifications.
Heres what you need to know to avoid overdoing it in the supplement department.
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What Should You Do In A Gummy Vitamin Overdose
To be safe, its best to contact your healthcare provider or Poison Control immediately after you realize you or your child has eaten too many gummy vitamins. Chronic over-ingestion of gummy vitamins would likely be more problematic than a one-time incidence. But, according to theNational Poison Data System, in 2018 there were more than 41,000 phone calls made to poison control centers related to children that were 5 and up over-consuming vitamins.
Many multivitamin preparations contain water-soluble vitamins, which are eliminated relatively quickly through the urine, Dr. Wood says. So keeping a child hydrated after the consumption has taken place will allow them to clear the vitamins more rapidly.
And if you seek medical treatment, be sure to take the vitamin container with you. There are a variety of gummies marketed for children, with many different medicinal and non-medicinal ingredients. Its important for medical providers to know exactly what was in the specific vitamins that your child consumed.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you talk to your doctor before giving your child any vitamins or supplements. Because of the high risk of overconsumption, the AAP doesnt recommend giving kids vitamins that are available through a food source.
Yes You Can Totally Overdose On Gummy Vitamins
As a kid, you might have munched on Flintstone vitamins or some other chalky, fruit-flavored version of a multivitamin. Fast forward to today, and gummy vitamins of all sorts are being hawked to adults. They might look and taste like fruity candy, but eating too many can have some negative side effects, including overdosing on certain vitamins.
Vitamins should be treated more as a medicine than a candy, says Melissa Majumdar, MS, RD, senior bariatric dietician at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. You should refer to the dosing on the bottle or what is directed from your healthcare professional.
Thats because too much of certain vitamins can really do some damage in your body. Fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, and E are stored in fat cells and, if taken in excess, can be problematic, says Majumdar. Heres a rundown of some vitamins and minerals you can overdose on and what their potential side effects are:
A few other things to consider when taking gummy vitamins:
1. The sugar content can be pretty high. Theres a reason they taste so good, and the reason is sugar. Generally, a regular dose of gummy vitamins has four to five grams of sugar, about the amount in one teaspoon of sugar, says Majumdar. Youd probably think twice about adding an extra teaspoon of sugar to your coffee, so shouldnt vitamins be the same?
Do you take gummy vitamins? Let us know your thoughts .
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So How Can You Be Sure Smartypants Supplements Are Safe
We create each and every product with our own children in mind. The safety of our products is a top priority at SmartyPants.
From start to finish, our internal Quality Assurance team is working hard to make sure that all our products meet and exceed the rigorous standards that we promise our customers.
Furthermore, SmartyPants is unique in the industry for focusing on the nutrients that are the toughest to obtain from our diets alone to help fill those dietary gaps.
We always recommend you get nutrients from food first, so we formulate our products to complement the average American diet, not replace it.
That means that we include safe amounts of vitamins and minerals in our products. After all, we believe its important to focus on how all of the available scientific research provides a story to shape the recommendations for how much of each nutrient we should eat daily.
Our supplements only use FDA GRAS ingredients, and every batch of finished product third-party lab tested for quality assurance.
So you can always trust that what’s on the label is what’s inside the bottle.
We care about each and every ingredient that goes into SmartyPants. You can learn more about our testing and ingredient selection process here.
Can You Overdose On Vitamins And Minerals
I’ve heard that too much vitamin A is dangerous. How much is too much? And are there other vitamins or minerals that I could overdose on?Rosario Fernandez, New York, NY
Rosario, you’re smart to be concerned about overdoing it I know so many people who gobble down scary amounts of tablets.
You’re safe with a multi that covers about 100% of the Daily Value for all vitamins and minerals. Daily Values are the levels of vitamins and minerals set by the Food and Drug Administration for the general population. Some vitamins, like most of the Bs and Cs, are safe in doses many times the DV. But watch out for the following nutrients you don’t want to overdo them.
Vitamin A: The “preformed” versions, called vitamin A palmitate or acetate, are dangerous in doses higher than 200% of the DV, or 10,000 IU daily. Too much can raise the risk of hip fractures and cause damage to the nervous system and the liver. But unless you’re a smoker, exceeding 10,000 IU is not considered dangerous if the source of vitamin A is beta-carotene and alpha-carotene plant pigments that the body converts to vitamin A as needed. There is no maximum set for these plant precursors of the vitamin, so it’s still a good idea to cap it at 10,000 IU, no matter the source.
Iron: Too much iron can cause constipation and may raise the risk of heart disease and cancer. Premenopausal women need 18 mg daily men and postmenopausal women need just 8 mg.
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Symptoms Of Too Much Vitamin D
Generally, when you have consumed too much vitamin D, youll experience symptoms that will let you know that all is not well in your body. These vitamin D overdose symptoms are mainly the result of too much calcium accumulating in the blood a condition known as hypercalcemia.
The symptoms include:
You Could Even Overdose On Vitamins Yes You Heard That Right Taking High Amounts Of Vitamin Supplements Can Have A Severe Impact On Your Body
Vitamin overdose can have lasting impact on your body
Everyone one of us grew up listening to how important it was to consume the right amount of vitamin. But did you ever think Vitamin could also create a problem for your body? Like everything in this world overdose of vitamin too could affect our bodies and we must be careful about it. Many often depend on supplements for their source of vitamin and despite the direction of consumption, people don’t mind taking extra doses of the vitamin. So, what exactly happens when you overdose vitamin?
Vitamins are primarily defined in two categories: Water Soluble and Fat-soluble vitamin.
Water-Soluble Vitamin
Water-Soluble vitamins are easily excreted from the body and aren’t stored in tissues by our bodies. These vitamins include Vitamin C and some of vitamin B. Since these vitamins are easily excreted from the body, they are least expected to effect even in case of overdose. However, taking a megadose of some water-soluble vitamins can lead to potentially dangerous side effects.
Fat Soluble Vitamin
Fat-soluble vitamins are stored by our bodies in tissues and are accumulated. Since they are accumulated in our bodies overdose of such vitamins can harm your body. Fat-Soluble vitamin includes: Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E and Vitamin 4.
Risk of overtaking Vitamin
Vitamins consumed through natural sources like food are very unlikely to cause harm to your body but taking them through supplements can lead to many risks for your body.
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What Is The Best Gummy Vitamin
There are gummy versions of single vitamins and minerals. But, the most common form is the gummy multivitamin, which usually contains three types of nutrients:
- Water-soluble vitamins: When you consume too much, they are passed through your body in urine, like when vitamin C makes your pee turn yellow. Very high doses can cause adverse effects.
- Fat-soluble vitamins: Your body stores these types in fatty tissue, so they are harder to eliminate if you take too high a dose.
- Minerals: Your body needs minerals like calcium, potassium, and iron. They can build up in your heart, brain, and liverthen, cause problems when they reach toxic levels.
What Happens If You Eat Too Many Gummy Vitamins
If you have children who take gummy vitamins you may be familiar with the following scene: Its the end of the day, and youre exhausted, but your kids suddenly remember that they havent taken their tasty vitamin gummies. They remind you, and you pass them their one gummy , and watch as they happily chew on the candy-like supplement. Once theyre finished, they hold out their hands for more. You remind them, again, that this isnt a treat. But what happens if your children manage to unscrew the safety lock and help themselves to more?
The whole point of gummy vitamins is that they taste goodand that can lead to overconsumption, for children or adults.
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How Should I Take Multivitamins
Use exactly as directed on the label, or as prescribed by your doctor.
Never take more than the recommended dose of a multivitamin. Avoid taking more than one multivitamin product at the same time unless your doctor tells you to. Taking similar vitamin products together can result in a vitamin overdose or serious side effects.
Many multivitamin products also contain minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc. Minerals can cause side effects such as tooth staining, increased urination, stomach bleeding, uneven heart rate, confusion, and muscle weakness or limp feeling. Read the label of any multivitamin product you take to make sure you are aware of what it contains.
Take your multivitamin with a full glass of water.
You must chew the chewable tablet before you swallow it.
Place the sublingual tablet under your tongue and allow it to dissolve completely. Do not chew a sublingual tablet or swallow it whole.
Measure liquid medicine carefully. Use the dosing syringe provided, or use a medicine dose-measuring device .
Use multivitamins regularly to get the most benefit.
Store at room temperature away from moisture and heat. Do not freeze.
Store multivitamins in their original container. Storing multivitamins in a glass container can ruin the medication.
Side Effects Related To Overconsuming Fat
Because fat-soluble vitamins can accumulate in your bodys tissues, they can cause much more harm when taken at high doses, especially over long periods.
Aside from vitamin K, which has a low potential for toxicity, the remaining three fat-soluble vitamins have a set UL due to their potential to cause harm at high doses.
Here are some side effects related to the overconsumption of fat-soluble vitamins:
- Vitamin A. While vitamin A toxicity, or hypervitaminosis A, can occur from eating vitamin-A-rich foods, its mostly associated with supplements. Symptoms include nausea, increased intracranial pressure, coma, and even death (
- 22 ).
Although vitamin K has a low potential for toxicity, it can interact with certain medications, such as warfarin and antibiotics .
SUMMARY
Both water- and fat-soluble vitamins can cause side effects when taken in high doses, with some causing more severe symptoms than others.
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Vitamin D Overdose Treatment
If you find out that you have a vitamin D overdose, its recommended that you stop taking your vitamin D supplements as soon as possible. The signs and symptoms of the overdose might take a while to subside because vitamin D is stored in fat and doesnt leave the system immediately.
Your doctors might also recommend that you cut calcium from your diet while they monitor the levels in the blood. This cuts down the hypercalcemia until your calcium levels return to normal.
In some instances, your doctor may prescribe corticosteroids and bisphosphonates, which will prevent the release of more calcium from your bone structure. Your doctor can also give you oral calcium disodium edetate, which increases your ability to pass calcium through feces.
Renal Failure And Vitamin C Overdose
Renal failure is a medical condition in which the kidneys stop functioning, and are unable to remove waste or extra water from the blood or keep body chemicals in balance. This condition occurs suddenly, usually after an injury, and it can be treated and cured. In a study by Baxmann AC, De O G Mendonça C, Heilberg IP. under the title Effect of vitamin C supplements on urinary oxalate and pH in calcium stone-forming patients it has been acknowledged that clinical usage of intravenous vitamin C has resulted in renal oxalate nephropathy, which results in the development of reversible tubulointerstitial nephritis and possible renal failure.
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