Friend sent me a link to this "news" story today.

[SashaBreeze]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...indsupplements



I of course sent him back links from Kellymom and such debunking this sort of thing but WOW.

[treeoflife3]

The article basically said ALL babies are vit D deficient if they don't take vit D supplements.

[tsfairy]

Funny how the human race managed to survive before "modern medicine."

No mention of how much more bioavailable the D in bm is compared to say, formula.

[crystal_buffaloe]

These low numbers might stem from the misperception that breast milk contains everything the baby needs, experts say

[PatioGardener]

"We really want parents to breastfeed, and if we're saying the breast milk really isn't complete, that you need something extra, then that might be an inhibition to breastfeeding

Breastmilk IS complete is the mother has enough vitamin D. But many mothers are low so breastmilk is low so babies are low... hmmmm... does it not seem logical to increase the mother's vitamin D levels so that she has enough so that her milk will have enough? (here in Canada, sunshine is just not enough to maintain vit D levels throughout the year.)

[SashaBreeze]

Pretty much the whole article made me .

What really bugged me about the whole situation was that it was sent to me by a very sweet man that I have been friends with since highschool. He has never once said one word either way about me breastfeeding and has zero problems with it. He honestly sent it to me out of a deep concern that I needed to know so I could get my kids on the supplements.

It makes me wonder how many people that are only vaguely familiar with breastfeeding will read this and fall for it hook line and sinker and for that matter how many moms new to breastfeeding and that do not have good support will fall for it and it possible even effect there view of breastmilk as all baby needs.

[crunchy_mommy]

I don't know, I don't really like the tone of the article & they say at the bottom OH by the way formula-fed babies need supplementation too... But I do think they have valid points... it's hard to get enough sun (especially if you follow the stay-out-of-the-sun-under-6-mos-and-slather-with-sunscreen-daily regime so many recommend these days now) and I wouldn't doubt that many mothers are low in vit. D.

I would love to see more info about the MOTHER supplementing, as well as whether any of the supplement actually crosses into the milk (maybe there are already studies on this but I had trouble finding them).

I do think BM *can* provide everything a baby needs but I don't know whether it always does in reality... Vit. D is the one area I would most suspect lacking, given how much time the average person spends indoors...

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy

I would love to see more info about the MOTHER supplementing, as well as whether any of the supplement actually crosses into the milk (maybe there are already studies on this but I had trouble finding them).

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vi...-d.html#mother Kellymom has good summaries of the studies that convinced me.

[anj_rn]

WOW!!! You would think if this was true that before formula was invented there would be no child without Rickets....

[3girls1boy]

the issue is not really about breast milk...the issue is that the only natural way to get Vitamin D is through sunlight and we don't spend the time in the sun that our ancestors did.  I wonder why, since Vitamin D is made in the skin, that supplementation doesn't come in some kind of a skin cream.

[ameliabedelia]

I don't see anything wrong with this article and I don't think breastmilk always provides everything a baby needs.  Breasts are pretty wonderful, but they aren't magic.  They can't make milk with sufficient Vitamin D if the Vitamin D isn't there in the first place (from the mother). And, many mothers are deficient. The only way to get natural Vitamin D is from the sun or from eating LOTS and LOTS of certain types of fish (as people who evolved in very Northern climates did). Sunscreen also prevents the body from making Vitamin D.

We currently spend way, way, way, way, way more time indoors then people historically have.  Plus, skin tone is a factor, and people with darker skin tones who live in Northern areas may not be able to make enough Vitamin D from the sun in the winter, no matter what..since they evolved to live much further south.

[bri276]

Right, there's nothing wrong with the milk at all, it's exactly how nature designed it when nature expected us to be outside pretty much all day every day during daylight hours.  We messed that up by building houses, living far north, wearing sunscreen and working in office buildings, so many of us need to compensate. 

The kellymom links have never convinced me that you could really get enough vit d in your milk without taking a very large amount of D, which I'd really rather not do.  I like cod liver oil, but it's important to me to get the baby herself into the sunshine as much as possible, and during the winter when she cannot get enough D from the sun in our latitude, I'll give her supplements. 

[sosurreal09]

i never gave my baby anything and shes fine. they tested all her levels of iron and whatever else b/c i didnt want to give her supplements and they said all her levels were perfect. this article makes me sick oh people assume breast is best. seriously?!?!?! it was MADE for humans omg

[sosurreal09]

i never gave my baby anything and shes fine. they tested all her levels of iron and whatever else b/c i didnt want to give her supplements and they said all her levels were perfect. this article makes me sick oh people assume breast is best but its lacking. seriously?!?!?! it was MADE for humans omg

[AllyRae]

I thought almost all people in the US were vitamin D deficient?  Adults, children, infants, breastfed or formula fed...*nearly everyone*.  The only children, I'd imagine, who are not vitamin d deficient are the ones that drink an abnormally large amount of vitamin d enhanced milk or who get a lot of time in the sun?  My breastfed baby gets vitamin d supplements, but so do my other children and myself because it can't hurt--the recommendations for vitamin supplementation were way low before recent research showed that north americans are way deficient.

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by AllyRae 

I thought almost all people in the US were vitamin D deficient?

not sure about USA, but in Canada for sure - over 2/3 of population is low.  I take vit D daily at levels shown to provide enough for baby, and will start him on drops as soon as he starts solids. 

nak

[kriket]

I live just south of the 42nd (the magical place where you won't get enough sunlight) BUT I am  very very very pale. I have never had a problem with vit D. I also eat a lot of veggies. I also take a prenatal that has 400Iu vit D.

I have never supplemented my also very pale son. I just assume his milk has the vit D it needs because I have the vid D I need. And we are white like wedding cookies, and are outdoors a lot.

If you are a dark skinned Canadian who works a desk job, then you may need to supplement (ime yourself), because YOU are deficient. It's not BM's fault that the mother doesn't get the nutrition she needs :)You're going to miss out on more healthful ingredients if you switch to FF because of Vit D. KWIM?

[dakotablue]

My first ped tried to tell me this and I literally laughed in her face, I couldn't help it.

She then started talking to me about vaxes and I knew more than she did, she then admitted they don't know much about a lot of this stuff and the only time she has ever seen a child hospitalized for vax disease was for severe dehydration that the parents should have noticed earlier.

I ended up leaving that practice after meeting the other docs. including one who said rice cereal was essential to baby's  well being.

[KateDavies45]

Originally Posted by treeoflife3 

The article basically said ALL babies are vit D deficient ...

How interesting...if EVERY baby is vitamin D deficient, EVERY time without fail....then IMO that's not a deficiency;....that's a natural NORMAL level of vitamin D for an infant.

[sweetpeppers]

What about babies being outside in the sun? Why do they always jump to supplementation? I mean, all of us humans evolved to live outdoors, adult, child, and baby. I expect that most babies are inside nearly all of the time, especially with daycare.