Deeply Disturbed by this

Free vitamins for all under-fives advised by chief medical officer

Dame Sally Davies says rise in rickets points to need for vitamin handouts to curb illnesses linked to vitamin D deficiency

Vitamin pills. Up to 40% of children in Britain are reported to be lacking sufficient vitamin D, obtained naturally from the sun and oily fish. Photograph: Tony Stone

All under-fives may be offered free vitamins on the NHS in an effort to curb the rising tide of illness, such as rickets, linked to them getting too little vitamin D.

Dame Sally Davies, the government’s chief medical officer, wants ministers to consider extending the offer from low-income families to all children under the age of five.

She has asked the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to investigate whether giving all children in that age group vitamins A, C and D, in the form of drops or tablets, would be cost effective.

Davies said the return of rickets, and the implication of vitamin D in other ill-health, meant that offering every family with under-fives free vitamins was necessary.

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Opinion:

I am deeply disturbed by this attitude to fix all with pills.

How about forcing parents to feed their children correctly, forcing parents to get their kids outside in the sun?

Society should be weaning itself off medication, not making sure that more is taken.

To me this suggested programme has all the hallmarks of ‘more pills – more profit for the drug companies’.

It’s disgusting that we are turning our kids into ‘vitamin junkies’ for the sake of bigger companies getting bigger. This is criminal!