Is Your Child...

[admin]

Deficient In Vitamin D

Could your child be vitamin D deficient? According to recent research, there’s a good chance. A recent study published in the journal Pediatrics showed that seventy percent of children are low in vitamin D, a vitamin deemed important for growth and overall health.

The Study

Researchers looked at data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to determine vitamin D levels in over 6,000 children under the age of twenty-one. The news was not good. While less than ten percent of the children tested were deficient in vitamin D, over sixty percent had insufficient blood levels of this important vitamin that’s so critical to good health.

Why Are Low Vitamin D Levels in Children So Bad?

Adequate vitamin D is important for people of all ages, but is particularly important for kids since low vitamin D levels in children is associated with weaker bones. In extreme cases low vitamin D levels can lead to a serious bone disease called rickets which causes the bones to form abnormally. Researchers also believe that low vitamin D levels in children can increase their risk of future health problems such as heart disease as an adult.

Low vitamin D levels are now being associated with an increased risk of a variety of chronic diseases including multiple sclerosis, certain types of cancer, autoimmune disorders, and type one diabetes, among others. In teenagers, vitamin D deficiency has been associated with elevated blood pressures and the metabolic syndrome, a forerunner to diabetes and heart disease.

Why Are Low Vitamin D Levels in Children So Common?

It’s obvious that vitamin D levels in children are inadequate for overall health in a majority of kids. Why might this be? The best source of vitamin D comes from direct sunlight. When sunlight hits the skin, it converts a compound present on the skin to a vitamin D precursor that can be processed by the body and used as vitamin D. There are few good food sources of vitamin D with the exception of fatty fish and some products such as eggs and milk which have been fortified with vitamin D. This makes it difficult to get adequate quantities of vitamin D from diet alone. Children who have dark skin need more vitamin D than their lighter skinned counterparts which makes low vitamin D levels in this population even more likely.

What Can You Do About This Problem?

Because of widespread low vitamin D levels in children, the American Academy of Pediatrics recently doubled the amount of vitamin D it recommends for children from 200 IU to 400 IU per day and are even recommending supplements for some groups of children. Experts also suggest that children get outside into the sunlight for ten to fifteen minutes a day. For most children this will be sufficient to maintain adequate vitamin D levels. If your child isn’t getting enough sunshine, talk to your child’s pediatrician about vitamin D testing.


by Dr. Kristie