[Edit 13 March 2020. Vitamin D & A compliment Vitamin C in strengthening the immune system.]

Vitamin C offers excellent protection and treatment for babies and children against common infections. Knowing this information helps parents make wise choices regarding commonly recommended preventative measures, such as vaccines. There are many known side effects from vaccines and many medical professionals who question the effectiveness of vaccines. Knowing which infections your child may be exposed to, and how you can treat them naturally and effectively at home using vitamin C will help you make a fully informed choice regarding vaccines. We all want safe healthy children. We need to thoroughly understand the risk of any and all treatments recommended for our children.

Vitamin C taken in a daily dose for health, three times a day, protects from illness and provides many benefits. A much higher dose is needed upon first noticing any symptoms of illness in order to resolve the infection quickly.

There are several doctors who recommend high dose vitamin C, but have slightly differing target amounts. You can decide what you want to do for yourself and your family.

Important notes:

• Vitamin C is the best broad-spectrum antibiotic, antihistamine, antitoxic, and antiviral substance there is. It is safe, effective, and inexpensive.
• Quantity (enough) and frequency of dose are the keys to successfully using vitamin C therapy. The goal is to maintain high levels in the blood. When treating illness, the more frequently you can give the doses the better.
• 1 gram = 1000 mg.
• Sodium ascorbate powder (SAP) is a good form of vitamin C because it is non acidic to the stomach. Ascorbic acid powder can also be used. Powdered forms are the most economical and can easily be mixed with a small amount of water or juice and swallowed. Many prefer to buy brands that are not made in China and do not use GMOs. Nutribiotic Sodium Ascorbate powder is inexpensive and recommended by Dr Suzanne Humphries. You can get it in 8 oz or 16 oz sizes from iHerb.
• Sufficient-C brand ascorbic acid. Recently added to the recommendations of Dr Suzanne Humphries: “The benefit of this brand is that it tastes amazing. It is a bit more expensive than Nutribiotic SA and it is Ascorbic Acid not Sodium Ascorbate.” It is especially helpful for babies and children who refuse other forms of SAP. There is a high level of tolerance because it tastes good. You can mix 50:50 Sufficient-C and SAP or add Sufficient-C powder to the SAP to hide the taste. It is sweetened with stevia and nothing harmful. It also contains caffeine free green tea extract, L-lysine and bromelain.
• You cannot ‘overdose’ on vitamin C or get dependent on it. When the body has reached saturation, it simply excretes the extra in urine and bowel.

Pediatrician Lendon H. Smith, MD recommends 3 g per day for pregnant women for benefits to the woman, the birth, and the baby. For baby he recommends 100 mg per day per month of age (6 mo 600 mg, one year old 1 g, two-year old 2 g, etc). Dr Smith recommends a daily dose of 2 – 5 g for everyone.

Dr Klenner recommended daily doses of 10-15 g from the age of ten through adult for preventative maintenance. Children should have their age in grams up the age of 10 (i.e. a one year old 1 g per day, a five-year old, 5 g per day).

If any symptoms of illness occur, increase the dose. Illness and stress depletes vitamin C in our bodies causing a need to ingest more.

Dr Andrew Saul: “Take enough vitamin C to be symptom free, whatever that amount may be. In order for vitamin C to act as an antiviral, antibiotic, antitoxin, or antihistamine, you need a huge amount. Expect to use as much a 1 g of vitamin C per pound of baby. You may very well get a cure with less, but not a lot less. What works is what works.” Bowel tolerance indicates saturation of vitamin C. When bowel tolerance occurs, the bowel will empty quickly. Continue to give vitamin C, but decrease the quantity slightly.

How do I get a baby or child to take so much vitamin C?

Add powdered sodium ascorbate to a small amount of water or juice so they will drink it all. During illness, set a timer and offer every hour or every half hour. Dr Saul recommends that If you are desperate and the child is refusing, add sugar to the water. Rather give baby the vitamin C with a little sugar, then not get them to take the vitamin C at all. Babies older than one year can have honey mixed in the water instead of sugar. Some babies will tolerate a little vitamin C powder directly on their tongue, followed by water or breast.

“You can either use enough, or have a sick child.” Dr Andrew Saul

“Does the cost of daily doses of vitamin C bother you? The average baby uses around 6,000 diapers before toilet training. You might just as well have a healthy baby as a dry baby!” Dr Andrew Saul

“’My baby is still sick.’ The dose needs to be higher. Shooting beans at a charging rhinoceros is not likely to influence the outcome!” Dr Andrew Saul

Dr Klenner’s therapeutic dose is 350 mg of vitamin C per kilogram of body weight per day in divided doses. Roughly represented in this chart (18 doses per day is approximately every 1 and 1/2 hours):

For serious viral illness Dr Klenner actually used as much as four times these amounts, administered by injection. For more severe symptoms, you can give more orally, up to bowel tolerance.

If you are facing a serious infection in a child, here is an idea of how you might proceed in order to get rid of it quickly:

Give 1g (1/4 tsp) vitamin C in the form of sodium ascorbate per year of age in a little juice all at once. A little more is better than a little less in this instance. Wait for 2 hours.

At 2 hours you should get a bowel tolerance response consisting of a very explosive bowel movement – complete with wind and very runny poop. If this doesn’t happen by 2 hours, give another 1g per year of age per hour until it does. I am willing to bet this will produce the goods in 2 hours, but if the patient is really sick, vitamin C levels might be low, and it might take a bit more to reach bowel tolerance response point (BTR).[1]

When BTR is reached, symptoms should subside and patient should feel better in a very short time, depending on the severity of the illness. If symptoms continue, continue to give sodium ascorbate frequently but below the bowel tolerance level.

After symptoms subside, continue to give a healing dose, or slightly more. That is, the child’s age in grams (up to 5 – 10 grams per day) spread over 3 times a day.

Vitamin C, given in high enough doses, given frequently enough, is one of the most powerful antidotes to both viral and bacterial infections. When parents understand how to use vitamin C at the first sign of illness for babies, children, and themselves, they will no longer fear the ‘dreaded childhood infections’ and will be able to confidently investigate the risks of any infection versus the known risk of vaccine injury.

Before a baby is two years old, the CDC says they need 36 vaccines against 14 different infections, delivered via 24 needles, and containing 91 different antigens. I encourage all parents to investigate which shots are being offered to you and why.

Further educate and inform yourself on the benefits and effectiveness of Vitamin C therapy by watching and reading:

1. Vitamin C Basics by Suzanne Humphries, MD, Internist and Nephrologist. https://youtu.be/JFT5rdwrNV0
2. The Vitamin Cure For Infant and Toddler Health Problems by Ralph Campbell, MD and Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D.
3. Dr Klenner’s Clinical Gide to the Use of Vitamin C by Lendon H. Smith, MD (1988). Dr Klenner explored using Vitamin C in high doses for a huge variety of illnesses/conditions. His primary mode of delivering the vitamin C was through injection. http://www.whale.to/a/smith_b.html
4. The Healing Factor, by Irwin Stone, MD, available in an electronic version http://vitamincfoundation.org/stone/
5. UPDATED version of Dr Suzanne Humphries’ protocol for treating Whooping Cough (pertussis) using vitamin C. http://drsuzanne.net/2017/10/sodium-ascorbate-vitamin-c-treatment-of-whooping-cough-suzanne-humphries-md/

[1] For more info on taking Vitamin C to bowel tolerance point, especially for treating chronic illness, and finding your own ‘saturation point’ http://beyondhealth.com/media/wysiwyg/kadro/articles/VitC-Bowel-Tolerance.pdf

Edited (25 June 2020) to add some links to sodium ascorbate brands available on Amazon. The sodium ascorbate powder is slightly salty. I prefer to dissolve it into a small amount of water and drink it quickly. Some prefer to mix it in juice.

• Source Naturals. If you want to start with a 16 oz size, this bottle has a secure top, but is slightly more expensive than the NutriBiotic brand (below).
• NutriBiotic Sodium Ascorbate Powder. Dr Suanne Humphries recommends this brand. The 16 oz size does not have a very secure top. It is important to keep vitamin C powder well sealed for best performance. The larger version is 2.2 pounds and has a more secure top.
• Sufficient C. Flavored powder. Dr Suzanne Humphries recommends this brand of powder which is more expensive, but can be helpful especially for sick babies/children because it is more tasty and generally well accepted by children. You can combine with another brand of powdered sodium ascorbate powder for a more potent economical dose.

Author: Becky Hastings, wife, mother, grandmother, passionate follower of Jesus and truth. As a breastfeeding counselor for over 23 years Becky is devoted to helping parents make wise decisions for the long-term health and wellbeing of their babies. As a member of a Vaccine Safety Education Coalition, Becky writes and speaks on the topic of vaccine safety.