Why Vitamins Are Important to Us

Growing up I remember taking Flintstones vitamins every morning.  When I became a mom, I started giving Haiden vitamins as soon as he was able to take them.  I didn't know exactly why, it was just what my mom did, and I wanted to be just like her in every way. 
It wasn't until we had a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor conduct extensive blood work on Haiden that I realized just how important vitamins were.  Haiden's test showed severe malabsorption issues.  So even though we completely revamped his diet, he still wasn't able to absorb all the nutrients.  We started out giving him over 12 vitamins/supplements a day!  It was overwhelming at first but it slowly became routine to him.  At that time we also questioned if this was all safe but we soon started to notice small improvements in Haiden's overall health.  Was it the diet?  Was it the vitamins?  Was it the supplements?  Was it the removal of toxins from his environment?  Honestly, I feel it was a little of everything. 
I also know that you can't just give your child any vitamin.  All those great looking vitamins on Wal-marts shelves aren't that great.  If you do give your child vitamins, which I strongly encourage, make sure you are giving them GOOD vitamins.  If not, you are just wasting your money.  Here is a great website with high quality vitamins, http://www.ourkidsasd.com/. 
Now that Haiden is so healthy, we've been able to cut out over half of his vitamins he was taking.  I also give Mason and Ella a few vitamins that I feel are important.

On the left is Mason and Ella's liquid omega from Nordic Naturals.  Next, is a new vitamin, called Juice Plus.  You can find out more about Juice Plus here, https://www.juiceplus.com/nsa/content/Welcome.soa.  I'm not for sure if we will continue with Juice Plus or go back to our Kirkman Multivitamin.  Next, is Haiden's fish oil loaded with omegas in pill form.  Then, Kirkman Pro Bio Gold Probiotic for Haiden and myself.  Last in line, is a liquid Vitamin D for all 3 kids.

As our diet continues to transition to mainly meats, veggies, fruits, nuts, and seeds, I'm hoping we can take out the Juice Plus/multivitamin. 

What we do for healthy kids! :-)  So I'm interested to know, do you give your kids vitamins?  If so, do you notice improvements in their health?  What kind of vitamins do you use?  I love your comments!