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How to Feed Your Child Enough Vitamin E

If your child's eating habits are erratic, as many children's are, it can be a challenge to feed her enough vitamin E. Use these ideas to make sure your child gets plenty.

Steps

Step One
Sprinkle wheat germ into your child's oatmeal or onto cold cereal. Each tablespoon has 2mg of vitamin E.



Step Two
Drop blueberries into your pancake batter. One-half cup of blueberries has 1.5mg vitamin E.

Step Three
Fix yet another PB&J! Peanut butter offers 1mg vitamin E per tablespoon.

Step Four
Add sunflower seeds to your muffin and quick-bread recipes. One-quarter cup has 7.5mg.

Step Five
Crunch on nuts like almonds, cashews, filberts or pumpkin seeds for snacks. Nuts have about 7mg vitamin E per 1/4 cup.

Step Six
Mash a sweet potato into plain mashed potatoes. Each sweet potato has 5mg.

Step Seven
Dine on salmon with steamed broccoli on the side. Three ounces of salmon (about the size of a deck of cards) contains 1.3mg, and 1/2 cup of broccoli has nearly 1mg of vitamin E.

Step Eight
Savor some creamy guacamole with baked tortilla chips. Avocados have 2 to 4 mg each.

Step Nine
Use vitamin-E-rich cooking oils. Canola, safflower, corn, soy and sunflower oils have 6 to 8 mg vitamin E per tablespoon.

Tips & Warnings
  • The Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for vitamin E, in milligrams (mg), are: infants 0 to 6 months, 3mg; infants 6 to 12 months, 4mg; children 1 to 3, 6mg; children 4 to 10, 7mg.
  • Vitamin E is an antioxidant; it protects the body from damaging free-radicals. It is linked to the prevention of cancer, macular degeneration and heart disease.
  • Vitamin E is one of the many casualties of refining grains. When wheat is milled into white flour, almost all of the vitamin E is left behind. Whole wheat, brown rice and other whole grains are much better sources of E than their refined counterparts.
  • If your child refuses wheat germ, don't worry. One meal will not make or break a good diet. Just serve plenty of vitamin-E-rich foods and look at your child's intake over three to five days.
  • Wait until baby is at least 1 year before introducing crushed nuts. This helps prevent allergies.
  • Nuts and nut butters can be choking hazards for young children. Consider waiting until children are 3 or 4 before offering them.