In 2025, there has been a shift towards more targeted child supplements designed to meet specific health needs, such as immunity, gut health, and metabolic health, while being carefully tailored to age-appropriate requirements.
For instance, data from Mintel Reports China, Purchasing Food and Drink for Children, 2025 showed that 57% of Chinese parents are most concerned about their children’s weight, signaling broader concerns around their kids’ metabolic health.
Yunn Lim, Senior Analyst of Food Science at Mintel, spoke to NutraIngredients on her observations of the children supplements category and market shifts that she anticipates would transpire over the next few years.
Format flexibility
While gummies have dominated the child supplement space for years due to their taste and texture, the next wave of growth will hinge on format flexibility, Lim said.
Based on Mintel Reports India, Baby Foods, 2025, parents increasingly want supplements that integrate seamlessly into daily feeding rituals rather than replace them.
For example, 91% of mothers in India give homemade food to children aged 0 to 3, yet 31% are willing to pay more for Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements (VMS) products. This highlights their openness to supportive tools.
Similarly, in the UK, 39% of parents are interested in powder supplements that can be added to meals.
“This shift suggests that while gummies will stay relevant, brands that reimagine supplements as part of mealtime, through powders, drops, or dissolvable strips, can better align with parental expectations for convenience and integration.”
‘Snackified’ supplements
Apart from flexible supplement formats that can be easily added into homemade meals or drinks, Lim has seen a growing trend towards “snackified” supplement formats, such as jellies, candies, and chocolates.
“Brands can focus on innovation in these formats while prioritising safety, efficacy, and bioavailability to reassure parents.”
At the same time, products that make the consumption experience more pleasurable, such as those with fun flavours, colour-changing elements, or reward systems (such as sticker-based tracking), can boost children’s willingness to take them and help develop self-management skills.
With the lines between supplements and food and drinks increasingly blurred, convenient, enjoyable formats like functional snacks, fortified drinks, and gummies are poised to become key tools for everyday nourishment instead of occasional doses.
Premiumization and precision
Babies and toddlers require vitamin D, calcium and DHA to support bone, immune and cognitive health during their fastest growth and brain development stage.
As activity levels rise during early childhood, they will need iron, zinc and omega-3s to support energy production, focus, and immunity to aid brain function and attention.
With children’s nutritional needs evolving from infancy to adolescence, these spell opportunities for brands to offer age-specific formats with benefits that speak directly to these changing needs.
“In the next two to three years, we can expect to see the premiumization of VMS for children driven by smaller families. With birth rates falling, parents are focusing more resources on fewer children.
“This will drive premium, high-quality, and science-backed supplements tailored for developmental milestones, from gut health and immunity to focus and emotional balance.”
As parents become more proactive, viewing VMS not as a remedy but as preventive care to support their kids’ long-term well-being, a rise in precision formulations addressing immunity, cognition, microbiome balance, and metabolic health can be anticipated.
“Brands and companies will need to premiumize with purpose by offering clinically tested formulas that justify higher spend; expand beyond immunity to develop multi-benefit solutions supporting focus, mood and emotional balance; and develop innovative, food-like formats that fit into family routines.”
