Health & Fitness

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Q) Can children be deficient in Vitamin D too?
 
A) As many parents know, for years pediatricians have recommended that all breast-fed infants be supplemented with Vitamin D drops. For many children, once they start on “normal” food, the supplementation stops.  

Given the amount of press Vitamin D has received for its widespread deficiency in the adult population and its links to diseases such as osteoporosis, cancer and diabetes, researchers are turning their attention to older children now.  

In a recent study of 125 diabetic children in Tennessee, researchers measured initial Vitamin D levels as well as the impact of supplementation over a full year. The children ranged in age from less than one to the early teens and included both genders and a number of different ethnicities.  

The initial testing showed that 18 per cent of the children were found to have adequate Vitamin D levels, 59 per cent were deemed to have insufficient levels, and 23 per cent were deficient.  

These findings corresponded to other previous studies that have shown that even in states such as Florida, with its plentiful sun exposure, many children have insufficient Vitamin D levels. The children were then supplemented with Vitamin D for a year and given blood work numerous times throughout the study.  

Those children who started off with sufficient levels received 400 IU of Vitamin D per day. This prevented their levels from declining but did not substantially increase them either.  

The children in the insufficient and deficient groups were given 1,000 IU and 2,000 IU per day, respectively. Subsequent testing showed that these children had significant increases in their levels by year's end.  

Based on this study and others before it, the authors concluded that the current guidelines of 400 IU of Vitamin D per day for children may be too low for many. Their findings led them to suggest that all children should receive 1,000 IU per day throughout the winter months and 400 IU per day the rest of the year.  

As well, they suggest that all children, under the age of five, and females, 10 years of age and older, and all children with darker skin pigmentation, should receive 1,000 IU per day year-round.

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Monday, June 28, 2010