Vitamin D in relation to children’s health
We have already written several articles about vitamin D. You can read them here , here or here . However, today’s article will focus on vitamin D purely in relation to children. The importance of vitamin D goes far beyond bone health. New knowledge about how vitamin D affects health continues to expand and contribute to the understanding of how this hormone affects virtually every cell in our body.
What will you learn in this article?:
- The role of vitamin D in children’s health
- Manifestations of vitamin D deficiency
- Children and the risk of vitamin D deficiency
- How to appropriately set vitamin D supplementation in children?
The role of vitamin D in children’s health
It is widely known that vitamin D helps children build healthy bones and prevents the development of rickets (=a disease characterized by softening of the bones, which can lead to, for example, slowed growth, bone deformities and more frequent fractures).
Vitamin D also modulates the immune system: it increases the defense against infectious diseases and can prevent the development of autoimmune diseases . [1]
Recently, however, there has also been more talk about vitamin D in connection with proper brain development and mental health . Vitamin D has been shown to affect proteins directly involved in learning, memory and social behavior and is also important for maintaining attention or the ability to adapt to change. [1] [2]
Manifestations of vitamin D deficiency
Symptoms associated with vitamin D deficiency include, for example, irritability, pain in load-bearing joints (such as knees), muscle pain, back pain, delayed development, greater tooth decay or bone fractures . Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency may appear more in younger children, older children and adolescents may not have any symptoms. It is therefore important to check the level of vitamin D regularly .
Children and the risk of vitamin D deficiency
Children are among the risk groups of people who are more at risk of a lack of this “sunshine vitamin”. Vitamin D deficiency is especially dangerous for children under 2 years of age. Among the reasons are insufficient function of the kidneys and liver, which play a role in the metabolism of vitamin D, but also a low supply of vitamin D by the nursing mother. Vitamin D deficiency is unfortunately widespread during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and the content of vitamin D in breast milk is closely related to the vitamin D status of the nursing mother. [3]
The fact that infants are logically less exposed to sunlight also contributes to the lack of vitamin D in children. In our geographical conditions, even older children are at risk of vitamin D deficiency. In addition, overweight or obese children, children with darker skin color and those who do not eat fish and fatty foods are more at risk of its deficiency.
How to appropriately set vitamin D supplementation in children?
EFSA recommends a daily dose of 400 IU D3 for children up to 11 months of age, and 600 IU D3 per day from 12 months of age. This dose may be sufficient to prevent rickets, but higher doses may be needed to achieve additional health benefits . In addition, for a child who already suffers from vitamin D deficiency, this recommended dose will not be sufficient.
In any case, laboratory-measured values of vitamin D will help to set the correct dosage . In order to monitor the effectiveness of supplementation, it is advisable to check the vitamin D level again after 2-3 months.
If you don’t have your vitamin D levels measured, you can try our simple quiz . By answering a few questions, you will get a rough idea of how your child is doing with vitamin D.
You can read about everything that affects the resulting level of vitamin D in the human body in this article .
