[delighted.mama]

Hi. At our 6 month well baby check-up the ped suggested that we start giving ds the liquid vit D drops. She said that after much research, doctors are finding that babies don't get enough vit D, especially breastfed babies and that being in sun every so often is not enough. Granted, ds doesn't hang outside in the sun all day, but I thought what he was getting was enough. I never gave vit D to my dd's, but I know that things change year by year. I hadn't heard of this new development. Has anyone heard of this? She was completely supportive of the BF, but just said that it doesn't provide enough vit D after 6 months. ARe you using any vitimins with your baby?

Libby

 

[kJad29]

My doctor has also suggested vit D drops for both myself and for my baby. Being that I'm African American and my son is ethnically blended I can see why. He's quite light by my standards, but still will need the extra vit D. I'm dark so in this climate (North American) no matter how much sun I get it won't be enough really to make sufficient vit D. I need a more equatorial climate (say anywhere near or around the equator) to make enough. I started giving the drops to my baby and myself because I don't think that it could hurt. My doc is also very supportive of BF'ing in fact she homebirthed all 5 of her kids and her near 3 year old just recently weaned on her own. I simply give my son a drop on my breast as I'm nursing him in the morning and that's it.

 

[evening start]

This is the new "thing" that the medical community has got onto. A bunch of recent studies have come out about Vit D deficiency given our societies frequent use of sunscreen. Now pretty much everyone needs some supplementation. The problem with infants is that most moms are deficient during their pregnancy so the baby starts out behind and if they are breastfed by the same deficient mother the problem only gets worse. My SIL who is a pediatrician had a couple cases of Rickets (the bone condition caused by Vit D deficiency) so supplementing has become a big deal in my husbands family. I was frustrated at first because I was giving him multivitamin drops that he hated and spit up pretty much completely so I just stopped giving them to him. I had been tested in my pregnancy and was not deficient and I was supplementing myself so I figured we were fine. However, to keep the peace with the ILs who were horrified I had stopped supplementing, we did some research and found Carlson Baby D drops. They are just Vit D, and all you do is put on drop on your nipple once a day before the baby latches on and that is all the additional D they need. I actually don't remember to do it every day, but it seems to work fine when I use them.

 

[justice'smom]

I'm just taking extra d so my son gets it in my milk. I get 400 mcg in my vitamin and then I take 2000 mcg once a day. I'm feeling a little under the weather right now though and I'm curious if I can take 2 of the 2000 mcg with my 400 in my vitamin? That would make me taking 4400. Is that too much? We are also sitting in the sun at least twice a day. Oh, I guess I should say that I got my advice about taking the extra d from my lacation consulatant friend. She said you should get at least 2000 a day.

 

[Marnica]

Quote:

Originally Posted by justice'smom I'm just taking extra d so my son gets it in my milk. I get 400 mcg in my vitamin and then I take 2000 mcg once a day. I'm feeling a little under the weather right now though and I'm curious if I can take 2 of the 2000 mcg with my 400 in my vitamin? That would make me taking 4400. Is that too much? We are also sitting in the sun at least twice a day. Oh, I guess I should say that I got my advice about taking the extra d from my lacation consulatant friend. She said you should get at least 2000 a day.

you can take 4400 no problem....according to the vitamin d council adults can consume up to 9,000mg/day and children 2,000mg/day.

 

[justice'smom]

Thank you. By the way, I made a mistake. It's not mcg, but IL. Whatever all tha means anyway.

 

[tanyalynn]

Supplementing mom somewhere in the range of 4,000-6,000 IU normalizes her vitamin D levels such that her milk has an appropriate amount of vitamin D for the nurseling. It sounds high compared to the tiny RDA, but compared to what a healthy person can make in the sun (10,000-20,000 IU or more in a day, amount of time depends on skin tone, latitude, % skin uncovered, all sorts of stuff), it's not an unreasonable amount.

The vitamin D council has info on testing and lots of studies if you're interested in reading more.