Your toddler's body doesn't make vitamin C on its own, so she needs to get this important vitamin from her meals and snacks. The 1,000 to 1,400 calories she needs each day should include vitamin C as part of a healthy and varied diet. It is important to understand why vitamin C is beneficial to your toddler, how much she needs and which foods are the best sources.
Need
According to Babycenter, a toddler between the ages of 1 to 3 years needs about 15 mg of vitamin C a day. Rather than focusing on giving your toddler this amount every day, you can aim for making sure he gets an average of this amount daily over the course of a week. Since vitamin C is found in many foods, deficiencies of the vitamin are rare.
Benefits
Vitamin C helps provide healthy gums and the healing of cuts and wounds. It also boosts your toddler's immune system, and Medline Plus states that vitamin C is an antioxidant that blocks damage in the body caused by free radicals. Vitamin C also helps improve the absorption of iron, which forms and repairs red blood cells, bones and tissues. According to Kids Health, toddlers are at increased risk for iron deficiency that can cause growth, learning and behavioral problems.
Sources
Brightly colored fruits and vegetables, like tomatoes, broccoli, oranges and strawberries, are good sources of vitamin C. Other sources include cantaloupe, mango, spinach and green peppers. A half cup of orange juice has 50 mg of vitamin C a day, and just three strawberries have 21 mg of vitamin C.
Considerations
Vitamin C is water soluble, which means that excess amounts of the vitamin not used in the body are flushed out in urine. However, consuming too much vitamin C can result in nausea, diarrhea and kidney stones. According to Babycenter, the maximum safe amount of vitamin C for your toddler is 400 mg a day.
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