Table 4 Guidance on vitamin supplementation.

Source of advice	Population	What to give	When to start	Duration of supplementation	Additional notes
Present day practice in infant feeding: third report, 198813	All infants and young children	Vitamin A 200 μg	6 months routinely, but start supplements at 1 month if any doubt about vitamin intake at that time	To at least 2 years, and preferably 5 years	Emphasises importance of vitamin D supplement to pregnant and lactating mothers
		Vitamin C 20 mg
		Vitamin D 7 μg
Community paediatrics, 2nd edn, 199314	All infants and children	Multivitamin	6 months	At least 2 years, preferably 5 years (endorses DH guidelines)
		supplement
Health for all children, 4th edn, 200315	All children	Multivitamin	1 year	Not stated	Identifies vegetarian and vegan infants as high‐risk groups
	Breast‐fed and high‐risk Asian and Caribbean children on exclusion diets	supplement	6 months	Not stated
	Pregnant and lactating women	Multivitamin
		supplement
		Vitamin D
Weaning and the weaning diet, 199416	Breast‐fed infants	Vitamins A and D	6 months	5 years	Emphasises importance of varied diet, moderate exposure to sunlight and foods and drinks rich in vitamin C
	Formula‐fed infants on <500 ml/day	Vitamins A and D	6 months	5 years
	All children (unless intake ensured from diet and sunlight)	Vitamin A and D	1 year	5 years

DH, Department of Health.