First Day Kids Vitamin Review and Discount Code

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Did you know that 93% of kids do not eat enough vegetables? When I run into studies like that, I feel relieved that I’m giving my kids a good multivitamin.

My kids take gummy vitamins every day at the breakfast table. Though kids who eat a well-rounded diet do not necessarily need supplementation, giving them a daily vitamin just makes me feel better. Maybe I’m a little bit afraid they’ll be missing something nutritionally without them. I want to meet their nutritional needs even if they’re going through a picky phase or avoid foods I deem important (you know, like protein and vegetables). I try to be conscious about limiting added sugar, but funny enough, for a while I was giving them high fructose corn syrup first thing every morning—in their daily vitamins. Once I actually read the label and realized this, I wanted to offer them something better. I started looking into various children’s multivitamins that are on the market today and honestly, I found a lot of them disappointing. I didn’t even know what criteria mattered to me until I did a little bit of digging. I wanted a kids multivitamin with lower sugar produced by a brand with easy-to-pronounce ingredients (no hidden artificial sweeteners, thanks!) that would also be convenient to buy. I did not want to start making a special trip to a health foods store just to pick up vitamins.  Ultimately, I found a new multi-vitamin for my kids called First Day. It checks all the boxes for my family, and if you’re looking for the best multivitamin for kids, I think I’ve found a strong contender that could help you improve your child’s health.

What is the healthiest kids vitamin?

When I started looking for a new vitamin, I looked to a resource I trust. I’ve followed Feeding Littles on Instagram for years. I’ve taken both of their courses and Megan and Judy have had a huge impact on my views around food and nutrition. On their blog, I found an article about supplements for kids. Instead of recommending a specific brand, Megan McNamee (a certified nutritionist) offers this advice to parents who are looking for a good multivitamin:

If you are looking to supplement, it’s important to keep a few things in mind when looking for a product. Keep an eye out for what you don’t want: too much. More isn’t always better. Unless your provider recommends supplementing for a deficiency, choose supplements that are less than 100% of the RDA/RDI (Recommended Dietary Allowance) per serving.  In addition, look for brands that describe purity standards, clearly list ingredients that are easy to pronounce, and are widely available or available through medical providers. – Megan McNamee

This criteria helped me to narrow down my options considerably. Let’s break down all for parts of this methodology for choosing the best multivitamin for your kids. It really starts with evaluating the label.

First Day Review Criteria

1. Choose Supplements that are less than 100% of the RDA/RDI per serving.

I had always assumed that providing 100% of the recommended dietary allowance was a good thing. But clearly, I had not done my research. First Day covers this in their Frequently Asked Questions section. They say:

More isn’t always better. We already get most of our nutritional needs from our diet. That’s why our experts focused on the 9 micronutrients that children most commonly lack. Our gummy is made to fill the gaps in their everyday needs.

I took a closer look at the vitamins I had been offering in the past (yes, the ones made with high fructose corn syrup). Unsurprisingly, those vitamins had more ingredients, and a handful of them met a higher percentage of the RDA. So we were very likely overdoing it. The takeaway? The vitamins I used to buy in bulk probably wouldn’t be recommended by someone with a specialization in children’s nutrition.

Could taking some brand of multivitamins actually be harmful? I loved First Day’s answer to this question.

Many vitamins today use cheap chemicals that our bodies can’t absorb in amounts that are much higher than we actually need! In the long term, taking these sorts of vitamins can be harmful to health because our bodies have a tough time getting rid of the excess. We’ve consciously formulated our vitamin so that your children get exactly what they need with the finest ingredients.

When you’re really reading labels, it is not difficult to find those cheap chemicals. It’s frustrating to think that they are really not helping, and possibly even contributing to problems. I like that First Day vitamins has called out the industry in this way and started making the healthiest kids vitamin they could find.

Let’s look at the second criteria.

2. Look for brands that describe purity standards.

I hadn’t really thought about the healthiest multivitamins for kids and wrongly assumed that most of the choices would be pretty much the same. If you take a few minutes to browse the websites of some well-known vitamin websites (especially those featuring familiar characters) there’s really nothing about how they source their ingredients.

First Day has an extensive section of their website dedicated to how their vitamins are made. You can read about how they source ingredients, how the gummies are manufactured and tested, as well as their commitment to sustainability. I couldn’t write a thorough First Day vitamins review without mentioning that they only use nine ingredients. You can read about each one on their website. For example, the Vitamin A in First Day children’s multivitamins comes from beta carotene. They use a plant-based source (carrots) to lower the risk of over-supplementation. Pretty cool, right? Their Vitamins B1 and B2 are produced through fermentation to increase bioavailability. I love that they go into this much detail and offer this high level of transparency.

First Day describes their purity standards in detail, right on their website. They use better ingredients to ensure that you’re giving your kids a healthier vitamin that still tastes really good.

3. Look for brands that clearly list ingredients that are easy to pronounce.

Ok, so let’s think back to my original children’s multivitamin that was clearly lacking. Those vitamins contain many multi-syllabic words that I have to Google to make any sense of. You lost me at dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate. As I compared labels from ten best-selling brands, many of them had confusing labels with unpronounceable words. So let’s take a look at First Day’s label.

First Day Kids Vitamins Ingredients

 

I am so impressed with these First Day vitamins ingredients, especially when I do a comparison to the vitamin brands that are available at my local grocery store. These ingredients were chosen thoughtfully to fill our children’s common nutritional gaps using a blend of real organic fruits and veggies. These ingredients are shown to support active energy, bone development, more focus, vision, cell development, and a stronger immune system.

These vitamins contain 2g of added sugar, which is significantly less sugar than you’ll find in other brands. For example, Smartypants is a popular brand and their vitamins contain 5g of added sugar. Nordic Naturals has 8g, which is a huge proportion of your child’s RDI/RDA for sugar. The added sugar in First Day vitamins comes from tapioca syrup and cane sugar—nothing weird or artificial.

4. Look for vitamins that are widely available or available through medical providers.

I mentioned earlier that I didn’t want to make a special monthly trip to the health store just to pick up vitamins. First Day offers their vitamins through a monthly subscription, which makes them widely available and also extremely convenient. I like knowing that another pouch will just show up at the beginning of the month. It’s super simple. The first time you place an order, the vitamins will arrive in their refillable bottle. Each shipment comes with a thirty-day supply (60 gummies). Every order after that, the vitamins will arrive in a pouch that you can use to refill the original bottle. This is a more eco-friendly and sustainable solution to offering vitamins by subscription. If you prefer, you can also order an individual bottle to test out first.

If you have more than one child and need multiple bottles each month, there’s a discount for that.

When you subscribe, every order is covered by their 45-day satisfaction guarantee.

Save 20% when you subscribe using my link for First Day multivitamins for kids.

The big takeaway here is that First Day vitamins met all four criteria for choosing the best children’s multivitamin. But in my opinion, the company goes above and beyond meeting just those basic requirements. The vitamins I used to buy got stuck in my kids’ teeth, just like fruit snacks and gummy candies. I considered them a cavity risk. But these vitamins do not stick to your teeth. Read this interesting testimonial from a pediatrician and medical educator:

Most important for gummy vitamins; they do not stick to your teeth. Pediatricians and dentists can agree that First Day is a superior vitamin for dental health. -Leanne Poston, pediatrician and medical educator.

In short, First Day vitamins are also better for kids’ teeth than other gummy vitamins on the market today. Speaking of other brands, let’s compare them to two major competitors.

Hiya vs. First Day

These are both very high-quality children’s multivitamins and they have many similarities. They are both available by subscription. Both companies use reusable bottles for the first shipment and then provide refills in a pouch for subsequent deliveries. The packaging is very cute!

While First Day is low in added sugar, Hiya has no added sugar. This is pretty amazing! They sweeten their product using monk fruit extract.

First Day includes nine essential nutrients: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Vitamin K, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B6, Folate, and Vitamin B12. By contrast, Hiya has a list of fifteen essential nutrients: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folate, Vitamin B12, Biotin, Pantothenic acid, Calcium, Iodine, Zinc, Selenium, and Manganese. You can read more about their ingredients here.

A big difference here (and the dealbreaker for us) is that Hiya is not a gummy vitamin. Instead, it’s a healthy kid’s multivitamin in chewable form. My family simply prefers a healthy gummy option, but of course, this is a matter of personal preference. Hiya appears to offer a very good quality product.

Smarty Pants vs. First Day

I know a lot of parents trust Smarty Pants vitamins, so I thought it might be helpful to compare them to First Day. Notably, Smarty Pants contains many more ingredients.

First, the writers at HealthBeat not recommend Smarty Pants Daily Organic Gummy multivitamins because they contain flaxseed oil, which is “notorious for going rancid.” So the Smarty Pants organic option may be problematic.

Both brands are sweetened with organic tapioca syrup and organic cane sugar. But First Day has only 2g added sugar and Smarty Pants has 5g.

If you want an organic, low-sugar multivitamin for kids, First Day is the winner. Of course, so much depends on your personal criteria. Having a low-sugar gummy option is a big priority for me.

My Honest First Day Kid’s Vitamin Review + Discount Code

I knew I wanted to find the healthiest multivitamin for my kids with better ingredients and less added sugar. I used the criteria above, from a real nutritionist, to assess my options. I knew these vitamins would be a big improvement compared to what I had purchased in the past. Based on my research, this is the best gummy vitamin for kids on the market.

If your kids respond well to taking vitamins in gummy form, First Day kid’s multivitamins will give them that experience while helping them level up their nutrition. Filling in those gaps really matters to me, especially when I remember that statistic saying that 93% of American children don’t eat enough vegetables.

I like the convenience of automated monthly shipping and that I won’t run out before the next shipment arrives.

First Day simply offers a better experience for my family. I believe these are the healthiest kid’s gummy multivitamins on the market. These vitamins will cover nutritional gaps and appeal to picky kids. For me, that means worrying just a little less.

Thanks so much for reading my First Day review! Click here to get the best price on your first purchase!