Vitamin D?

[chrisndanni]

I need to know if anyone has any info on this. My pediatrician told me to give my daughter oral vitamins. When I questioned her on why my baby would need extra vitamins since she should be getting plenty of what she needs from my breastmilk she told me that vitamin D is blocked in breastmilk. Is this true at all? Does anyone know if there is any real reason to think a bf baby wouldn't be getting enough vitamin D?

[Nicole77]

Sorry to crash your ddc! Here is some good information on vitamin D for breastfeeding infants. Just because vitamin D is added to formula does not mean it is lacking in breastmilk (although there sure are a lots of docs out there who think that).

Some good take away lines to share with an uninformed pediatrician include:

babies rarely need vitamin D supplements

The amount of vitamin D in human milk is small: 0.5-3.4 µg/liter (20-136 IU/liter) [Hamosh 1991, Good Mojab 2002] in mothers who are not vitamin D deficient. However, the vitamin D in human milk is in a form that is very easily used by the baby and therefore adequate for most infants, when combined with a small amount of sun exposure.

The best way to get vitamin D, the way that our bodies were designed to get the vast majority of our vitamin D, is from modest sun exposure. Going outside regularly is generally all that is required for you or your baby to generate adequate amounts of vitamin D.

World Health Organization information [Butte 2002, p. 27 ] states, "Two hours is the required minimum weekly amount of sunlight for infants if only the face is exposed, or 30 minutes if the upper and lower extremities are exposed." This guideline is from a study [Specker 1985] of exclusively breastfed Caucasian infants under six months old at latitude 39°N (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA). Darker skinned infants may require a longer time outside (three to six times the sunlight exposure) to generate the same amount of vitamin D [Good Mojab 2002].

It is not necessary to get sun exposure every single day, as the body stores vitamin D for future use. Per [Good Mojab 2003], "Studies have shown that children can store enough vitamin D to avoid deficiency for several months when they are exposed to only a few hours of summer sunlight."

[chrisndanni]

I didn't think the doctor could be right about that but I wanted some confirmation. Thanks for the information.

[fawnanddoe]

I am glad you posted this. Our pediatrician told my DH that we should give our baby oral vitamins too, and mentioned the thing about vitamin D. When he came home and told me this I was pretty much like "uh no, our baby does not need vitamins"

[honeybunny65]

Our pediatrician NEVEr mentioned giving her vitamins. He DID tell us to get her outside in the sun for 10-15 minutes for Vit. D b/c of it not being transferred through the breast milk as well.

[melamama]

It's because it's part of the standard AAP recommendations.

Because of the sunscreen epidemic many women do not have adequate vit. D levels (the range is somewhere between 80 and 30, and most are around 30--which really isn't adequate).

Vit. D does pass from mother to babe, but only if mother has enough.

Get your levels checked---vit. D is a very important component---your body depends on it for manymany other functions.

I will be taking my babe outside under the clear sky so she gets some sun, but I also know my vit.D level---87, and wouldn't supplement my baby, if anything I would add D to what I take.