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Vitamin D Deficiency in Babies
A New York Times article warns parents to watch for a possible Vitamin D deficiency in babies.
According to the article, some experts fear that vitamin D deficiency may be more common than pediatricians realize, and that a condition called rickets may be going undetected.
Several cases have been reported in the journal Clinical Pediatrics and other medical journals. Physicians have known for more than a century that exclusive breast-feeding may be associated with vitamin D deficiency and rickets, and that the condition is easily prevented and treated with inexpensive vitamin drops or cod liver oil. However, doctors are reluctant to say anything that might discourage breast-feeding. Most doctors still feel breast-feeding is the perfect food and the healthiest way to nourish babies.
Now some researchers are also linking vitamin D deficiency with other chronic diseases like diabetes, autoimmune disorders and even cancer, and there have been calls to include blood tests of vitamin D levels in routine checkups.
Apparently if the mothers have a Vitamin D deficiency their milk will be deficient. Breast milk does contain vitamin D, but not in hormone form. It is converted into a hormone by an enzyme in the liver. Some doctors and public health officials say conditions may be ripe for rickets to re-emerge: more infants are being breast-fed for extended periods, children are drinking more juice or soda and less milk, and they are spending less time exposed to sunlight, which enables the skin to synthesize vitamin D.
Children with dark skin appear to be at even greater risk for rickets because they do not synthesize vitamin D through the skin as easily as those with light skin. According to the article, the solution is not to quit breast-feeding but to supplement breast-fed infants with vitamin drops, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), is doubling the amount of vitamin D it recommends for infants, children and adolescents. The new clinical report, “Prevention of Rickets and Vitamin D Deficiency in Infants, Children, and Adolescents,” recommends all children receive 400 IU a day of vitamin D, beginning in the first few days of life; double the recommended dosage recommended in 2003. For more information, click here.
Unfortunately, Vitamin D deficiency may not be immediately apparent, even as it affects growth, muscle and bone mineralization. A recent review of 14 studies, done by researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and published in The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine in June, found that extreme vitamin D deficiency was rare in the United States, but that up to 78 percent of breast-fed babies who were not supplemented in wintertime were deficient. Rates are often higher when there is less sunlight.
Teenagers are also at risk for vitamin D deficiency. Although their large bones protect them against rickets, they are at risk for osteopenia and even osteoporosis, and may have weaker bones that are more likely to fracture, said Dr. Robert Schwartz, professor of pediatrics at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Another article published in the New York Times cites studies that show evidence that even in the general population, having too little of vitamin D appears to be associated with a higher risk of death. According to a Archives of Internal Medicine article, researchers say they looked at the vitamin D levels and death rates of more than 13,000 people over a period of more than six years,
According to the article, those who fell in the lowest quarter of vitamin D levels had a 26 percent higher risk of death from all causes than those in the top quarter. About 41 percent of men and 53 percent of women in the United States have levels of the vitamin that are considered too low.
The researchers pointed to other studies looking at the role in disease of vitamin D, which can be found in milk and also comes from exposure to the sun. Researchers have found that deaths from cardiovascular disease are higher in the winter, when less sun leads to lower levels of vitamin D. The question now is whether taking supplements to raise levels of the vitamin would lower the risk of death.
