D3 Deficiency in Children
Vitamin D deficiency is not limited to adults. It is also rapidly on the increase in children and adolescents. The number of children who are vitamin D deficient and to a degree suffering from nutritional rickets (soft bones) is emerging as a significant problem for this age group.[16]
In children, vitamin D3 deficiency affects bone mass – leading to rickets[17] – as well as immune health.[18]
Concern for the rapid increase in vitamin D deficiency in children has grown to the point where paediatricians are questioning which dosage form is best to correct the deficiency.
Dr Craig Munns is a paediatric endocrinologist conducting research at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, NSW, to determine if high dose vitamin D supplementation (Stoss Therapy) is necessarily better than long-term, low-dose vitamin D supplementation to treat vitamin D deficiency in children and adolescents. He’s noticed that rickets has started to re-emerge in the last 6-10 years following patterns of immigration and lifestyle changes from greater skin cancer awareness.
"Unless you are taking a vitamin D supplement, you need sun exposure to the skin in order to manufacture sufficient levels of vitamin D, and reduced exposure will contribute to a deficiency. The safest approach might well be to “Slip! Slop! Slap!” and take a vitamin D supplement," he says.
Vitamin D deficiency is also of concern in pregnant and breastfeeding mothers as this can directly affect the vitamin D status of the newborn baby. Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy can directly reduce the baby’s birth weight and limb length well into later childhood.[17,19] It can also lower baby’s resistance to infections.[16,18] According to Dr Munns, "Supplementation can be used right from the start. Infants require vitamin D and even when they are breastfed, there is often only very limited amounts of vitamin D3 in the breast milk."
