Vitamin D Deficiency and Your Kids
Here in America, we’ve become a society so worried about skin cancer, that we’ve overlooked some of the good things that the sun provides for us. One of those things is an improvement in our mood. Another is Vitamin D. But Vitamin D is also obtainable through food including oily fish, eggs, fortified cereals, milk and orange juice. It can also be taken as a pill or liquid supplement.
Vitamin D works directly on the cells in the body, affecting metabolism the way a hormone dose. It is an extremely important vitamin, and we are finding out just how important with each new study. Deficiencies can lead to bone softening disease (rickets short term, or osteoporosis long term), dementia, heart disease, diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, some cancers, autoimmune diseases, and infections.
As we lather ourselves and our children with sunscreen, we increase our deficiencies. A recent study from Children’s Hospital in Boston revealed that 40% of infants were lacking in Vitamin D. Those especially affected had darker skin which interferes with absorption, or are from the Northeast, where there is less direct sunlight.
But the solution to the growing Vitamin D deficiency problem in our children is NOT to expose them to more sun. Supplying a liquid supplement by mouth is just too easy. The American Academy of Pediatrics has just wisely doubled the recommendation for infants and children to 400 IU daily. This amount is completely safe, and is the amount of Vitamin D found in a liter of infant formula.
The problem, believe it or not, is worse for mothers who are breast feeding. When was the last time you heard a doctor say that breast milk was deficient in anything? The problem may come from mothers not having enough Vitamin D, which is then lacking in their breast milk. It may be easily correctable by administering supplements to breast-feeding mothers rather than their infants, but this has yet to be studied. In the meantime, the Boston study showed 10 times the amount of Vitamin D deficiencies in infants of breast feeding mothers as compared to those who used formula feeds. This is a huge discrepancy, especially when you consider how easy it is to supplement this essential vitamin.
So use sunscreen on your children’s skin, but at the same time consider giving them a daily drink of Vitamin D.
Dr. Marc Siegel is an internist and associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a FOX News Medical Contributor and writes a health column for LA Times, where he examines TV and movies for medical accuracy. Dr. Siegel is the author of “False Alarm: the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear” and “Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic”. Read more at www.doctorsiegel.com
Tags: children, Deficiency, food, kids, milk, skin, sunlight, sunscreen, vitamin d
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I am really glad to see nutritional supplementation chosen over drug therapy. I work in the drug rehabilitation industry and way too often the choice is quick to prescribe meds when they will only further harm the individual. Good blog.
Love what the doctor said… Great stuff.
Liquid Nutrition is huge and growing as an industry of its own. With the findings of superfoods such as Acai, Goji, Noni, and the likes, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants have become that much simpler to consume.
There are a number of great Liquid nutrition products in the market place at your local health food stores. Many of the top products are only available thru direct sales/network marketing. Companies such as Noni, Xango, and one of the newest top companies JUS have incredible products along with great income producing home based businesses.
For JUS, you might check out http://www.tinyurl.com/liquidnutrition
Jim Kondo – urwealthylife
http://www.urwealthylife.com
This report is riddled with inaccuracies, typos (”Vitamin D works directly on the cells in the body, affecting metabolism the way a hormone dose”–You mean,”does.”) and endangers babies.
Breast milk is far superior to “complete” formula and vitamin D deficiency is rare in babies. Children and adults need more sunshine in moderate doses, not artificial Vitamin D.
Yes, there are some climes–Pacific Northwest, the Northeast–where the sun’s angle does not create enough vitamin D in the skin. The answer is not to stop breastfeeding but to individualize vitamin care.
Jay Gordon,MD, FAAP, FABM
This is silly. Go outside and get a little sunshine instead of staying inside and taking yet another supplement. If your breastfeeding – take a walk outside with your baby everyday. It will do so much more for you than just drinking your vitamins.