Sunday, February 24, 2008
Vitamin D has been in the news a lot lately. People question me all the time about the recommendation that breastfed babies be supplemented with vitamin D begining very early in infancy. After all if breastmilk is the perfect food for the baby, why do they need a supplement?
The answer is multifold: Breastmilk is not supposed to be a source of vitamin D for humans. Most people will be able to make vitamin D simply by going out and getting some rays. Now here is where things get complicated.
If you are caucasian, sunlight exposure, especially sunburns increase your risk of skin cancer. Most people ( except those that go to my community pool in summer) take care to avoid excessive sunlight and slather thier children with sunscreen. Inspite of this, if you are fair skinned and go out like normal people you probably will be able to make and store vitamin D that'll last you through the cold, grey winter months.
If you have dark skin, your skin is designed to take sunlight levels closer to the equater. The closer you get to the equater, the more pigment people have in their skin. So, if you are African or Indian or Hispanic, you need a lot more sunlight, in intensity and duration, to make the same amount of vitamin D a light skinned person makes in ten minutes of direct exposure.
The currant RDA ( recommended daily allowance) for children is 400 IU/day.
Here are a few articles on Vitamin D
Here are good sources of vitamin D:
If you chose to give CLO ( cod liver oil) to your baby or toddler, make sure to mix it with some food. Do not give straight cod liver oil to a child until he/she is 2-3 yrs old. This is in order to avoid a kind of pneumonia that is linked to aspiration of oily substances such as CLO or mineral oil.
Why Does My Baby Need Vitamin D Supplements
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