Vitamin D to infants: until when to administer it and why?
Keeping your baby in good health will be the biggest challenge once he is born and will cause you many anxieties! You will also have to adopt new behaviors and a renewed lifestyle at home, especially as regards hygiene.
If you follow 10 simple rules for baby care you will have no problems! Follow our advice in this video and then continue reading to learn all about Vitamin D.
What is vitamin D and where it is found in nature
Caring for a newborn baby is one of the main tasks of a new parent. There are many things to keep in mind, and one of the first notions that will be explained to you already in the hospital will be the administration of some precious vitamins of which the baby is naturally lacking, but still needs to have in the body: one of these is the vitamin D.
This hormone is normally produced in the skin, thanks to the assimilation of solar rays and ultraviolet radiations. Our skin transforms dehydrocholesterol, a derivative of cholesterol, into a vitamin and after passing through the liver it becomes the vitamin. Q3 So we can say that it is something that our organism tends to produce in a natural way.
However, the substance can also be taken through food, although most of the requirement is concentrated in sun exposure. Foods rich in vitamin D are fatty fish (salmon, herring, sardines, fish liver), canned tuna , egg yolk, butter, green leafy vegetables and some types of milk (see other foods in the photo below).
Why is this substance so important for health that it is administered from the first days of a newborn's life?
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Why the vitamin D supplement is good for newborns
All pediatricians agree: taking adequate doses of vitamin D from birth is essential for the correct development of the newborn. In fact, the hormone allows certain vital functions to function properly: for example, it absorbs calcium and phosphorus in the intestine, which will settle in the bones.
It is of primary importance that these elements hook to the bones because they are the ones that give them solidity and strength. Vitamin D has also recently been found to have significant benefits for the immune system as well. A real wonder for your baby's growth! If combined with the intake of vitamin K, essential for blood clotting, you will have an extra ally.
Your concern as a mother will therefore be to get the baby to take vitamin levels balanced with his age: the risk of a vitamin D insufficiency is an incorrect development of the skeletal system and even rickets, or a childhood disease that if unleashed it creates defects in bone mineralization. We want to reassure you: fortunately, rickets in our country is a rare disease, especially if the newborns were born in the months with more light, therefore in spring or summer and therefore they were often taken outdoors.
Nevertheless, today it is estimated that about 50-70% of Italian children have a vitamin D deficiency, therefore it is necessary to supplement for a fairly prolonged period of time.
Vitamin D deficiency in children
If for adults it has been shown that a sun exposure of 20 minutes a day is sufficient to have sufficient quantities of vitamin D to assimilate, (hands and face in the sun without sunscreens) for children and infants, the data are not yet certain .
Without forgetting that up to 6 months of age, exposing a baby directly to light is not recommended.
This is why pediatricians prefer to administer vitamin D by mouth, usually a few drops every day, so as to have enough even for the winter months when the sun is less strong and peeps less often.
There is no difference if the newborn was breastfed or if he took formula milk, because the daily requirement of this hormone is little influenced by food. It is mainly produced by our body as a result of being outdoors and in the sun.
In addition, modern lifestyles have caused this shortage to worsen: children are less outdoors than before and are understandably protected by sunscreen. This explains the common deficit in preschool children. Other risk factors it can be dark complexion, exclusive prolonged breastfeeding and obesity.
How long to give it to newborns?
The prophylaxis that is usually recommended by national and international associations is the supplementation of vitamin D only within the 1st year of life, with a dosage of 400 I.U. per day.
For older children there is no obligation, but if it becomes necessary, know that you can give it until adolescence, with a dosage of 600 IU per day. 12 months are those of some categories at risk, such as children with chronic diseases who are unable to fully absorb the hormone in the intestine.
Put simply, how much administration to give to a newborn baby? And how to do it?
You will be encouraged to buy some vials of vitamin D which you can easily find at the pharmacy. There are no better brands than the others, but the choice tends to fall on the advice of the trusted doctor or on the practicality of the bottle itself. As a prevention you can give 2-4 drops of vitamin D3 per day. If the baby is just born you can slide the drops to the side of his mouth, thanks to the special pipette, otherwise, as soon as he is a hair more autonomous, you can give them to the baby with a spoon or "hidden" inside the meal.
The operation is very fast and the taste is almost completely neutral, so you shouldn't have particular difficulties in carrying out this daily action ... the hard part is remembering it for a whole year!
Other cases in which integration is useful
It is difficult to really reach the levels of vitamin D3 recommended by the medical community and we are not just talking about newborn babies.
Although we talk very often about the deficit in babies, less known is the incidence it has on adolescents: about 8 out of 10 boys are in fact deficient in this hormone.
The fault would always lie in the tendency, especially in these age groups, to discard play and hobbies outdoors for others indoors. In addition, in the pre-adolescent years, the diet factor is also triggered, which begins to be unregulated and unhealthy due to extra-school commitments.
Specifically, there are some categories of children who are predisposed to this vitamin deficiency: children with very dark skin, those with reduced sun exposure, those who follow inadequate diets such as veganism and finally children with kidney failure or chronic hepatitis.
How to remedy? Urging their children to spend a lot of time outdoors and supplementing with the help of the same drops that are given to the little ones. Possibly, if the family situation allows it, let them spend some periods in the warmth, perhaps in seaside resorts where they are more likely to stay away from home.
The supplements can then also be taken by pregnant and / or breastfeeding women as a form of prevention against the unborn.
The risks of excess
As we identified earlier, it is difficult for the vitamin to be reached today. However, there are some rare cases in which supplementation is excessive: it is hypervitaminosis.
Hypervitaminosis means an impaired absorption of excess calcium that is not recorded with excessive exposure to the sun or the intake of specific foods, but only due to the incorrect use of drugs.
How to know if you are suffering from this disorder? The most common symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and if the administration is prolonged over time even kidney and heart damage, as calcium is deposited in the kidneys and heart. Always consult your doctor if you need to take an extra dose of vitamin D supplements or if you need to give it to someone, especially if it is your child.
