Is your child getting enough Vitamin D?

Seven out of ten American children have low levels of vitamin D, putting them at risk for bone and heart disease when they become adults. These findings are significant as vitamin D deficiency is linked to high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease. Low vitamin D also causes poor bone growth and development.

This finding was published by Pediatrics, the official publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The study was conducted by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

It has already been established that low levels of vitamin D contribute to having higher parathyroid hormone levels, which is not good for bone health and growth. Low vitamin D also leads to low calcium – that’s bad for bones. Not having enough of this essential vitamin also lowers good cholesterol – that’s bad for the heart.

Previous smaller studies had already identified high rates of vitamin D deficiencies among children. The study cited by Pediatrics is the first one to examine nationwide data.

Researchers discovered that 9 percent of the study sample, which totals 7.6 million children nationwide, was vitamin D deficient. Another 61 percent, or 50.8 million, was vitamin D insufficient. Vitamin D deficiency is defined as having less that 15ng/mL of blood. Insufficiency is having 15 to 29ng/mL of blood.

That’s millions of kids across America low in Vitamin D. The study’s lead author Dr. Juhi Kumar says, “we expected the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency would be high, but the magnitude of the problem nationwide was shocking.”

Kids typically low in Vitamin D were older, female, African American, Mexican-American, obese, drank little milk, or spent more than four hours a day in front of the TV or computer. Breast fed babies may also need supplementation as human milk is not fortified with the D vitamin.

Doctors say vitamin D levels have gone down the past 20 years as children have become more sedentary and don’t spend as much time outdoors. The more common use of sunscreens has also contributed to this trend. Our bodies use UV-B sunlight to convert a form of skin cholesterol into vitamin D. So some sunlight is healthy – even necessary for our health!

Doctors also recommend that children should eat more fish and drink more milk which are rich in vitamin D. But they do add that it is hard to rely on food sources alone to get enough. Both food and healthy levels of sun exposure must work together to keep vitamin D levels sufficient.

Supplements can help cure deficiencies as well. The AAP has updated its vitamin D guidelines. They now recommend that babies, children and teens must take 400 IU per day in supplement form.

You might want to ask your own pediatrician to screen your child for vitamin D deficiency. Get your kids to drink more milk, eat more fish and play outdoors more often. Remember, you can even skip the sunscreen once in a while.

Dr. Michael L. Melamed of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine advices parents, “It would be good for them to turn off the TV and send their kids outside. Just 15 to 20 minutes a day should be enough. And unless they burn easily, don’t put sunscreen on them until they’ve been out in the sun for 10 minutes, so they get the good stuff but not sun damage.”

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