New vitamin D guidelines for children: double the dose!
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Last Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics released its newly updated guidelines for vitamin D for children. And here’s what is recommended: vitamin D supplementation doses should be doubled!
The previous guidelines from 2003 recommended 200 IU per day of vitamin D. The new guidelines recommend 400 IU per day.
Some of reasons for this increased dosage are:
- Results from clinical trials indicating vitamin D supplementation can prevent diseases including rickets, osteoporosis, infections, autoimmune diseases, cancer and diabetes.
- Dietary sources of vitamin D are limited. Even mother’s milk supposedly cannot provide enough vitamin D.
- Vitamin D is synthesized by the body upon exposure to sunlight. However, the amount of sun exposure that can provide adequate vitamin D without increasing the risk for skin cancer is not known.
Recommendations for babies are as follows:
- Exclusively and partially breastfed babies need vitamin D supplements of 400 IU per day during the first 2 months of their life.
- All non-breastfed infants and older children who are consuming less than a quart per day of formula or milk fortified with vitamin D should also receive supplementation of 400 IU a day.
- Children taking certain medications that can increase risk of vitamin D deficiency may also need vitamin D supplementation.
As a resident of Switzerland with 2 growing children, I follow this issue of vitamin D supplementation with interest (see previous post on vitamin D deficiency).
You see, our milk here (as well as in many European countries) is not fortified with vitamin D. Yet our doctors never talk to us about vitamin D supplementation (or any vitamin supplementation for that matter), neither for my kids or for me, not even when they were babies partially fed with breast milk. Our almost only source of vitamin D is the sun. Yet, I don’t hear any major problems of vitamin D deficiency. Kids here seem to be as healthy as anywhere else in the world.
Why aren’t European health experts taking the vitamin D deficiency issue seriously? Do I have reason to worry about the health of my kids? Without vitamin D fortification and supplementation, does this mean that European kids will be less healthy their American counterparts?
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