Your Breastfed Baby And Vitamin D Supplementation

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about your baby and vitamin D supplementation. Even if your baby is breastfed, at some point in time your pediatrician is bound to bring the subject up. So what are the facts? How do you navigate the amount of information - and misinformation - that is out there? We hope you can find your answers here.

The first thing you must understand is that most pediatricians are not all that well educated about breastmilk. They have a tendency to treat bottle fed and breastfed babies alike and by golly if bottle fed babies need multi-vitamin drops then so does your breastfed baby!

Breastmilk and formula have about nothing in common except that they are both foods. Breastmilk is alive and changes daily according to your baby's needs. It is not only a live food, it is also a complete food as well as perfectly tailor made to your baby. Formula is dead and is not a complete food - hence the need for supplementation - vitamin D and otherwise.

Your Baby And Vitamin D: Nutritional Rickets

Now, if you say "thanks but no thanks" to your doctor...he/she is likely to counter attack with "what about nutritional rickets?" And to the new mother that will sound rather ominous.

So what is nutritional rickets?

First of all, rickets is a disease primarily caused by a deficiency of vitamin D.

You may already know that vitamin D is vitally important to the health of your bones - as well as your babies - since it regulates the absorption of calcium into your body. Vitamin D is actually a natural hormone produced by your body. Vitamin D is manufactured when your skin is exposed to the ultraviolet B (UVB) rays of the sun. Vitamin D levels are regulated by your endocrine system and it can be stored in the body for later use when UVB radiation is scarce - such as during winter months.

These rays can - and are - blocked by sunscreen, clothing and other such things. Your skin does require DIRECT exposure to the sun's rays in order to synthesize vitamin D. If not, then you could be at risk of a vitamin D deficiency - and so can your baby.

Therefore nutritional rickets is a preventable disease that still can - and does - occur in the United States mostly in at-risk populations.

What are at-risk populations?

Well, over the last few decades, the sun's rays have become synonymous with danger and we have been taught to protect our skin from the sun. In this case, we all could be at risk. Also research has shown that darker skin babies are more at risk.

A 2002 study suggests that 10 times as many African-American women than Caucasian women are deficient in vitamin D, and have a lower mean concentration of vitamin D in their bodies.

Is my baby at risk?

Your baby - if breastfed - will have received his/her initial stores of vitamin D from you during pregnancy - at about half your level. If you are vitamin D deficient during pregnancy, your baby may be at risk of congenital vitamin D deficiency.

Additional vitamin D is also available through your milk and via exposure to UVB radiation. A study done in 2004, showed that your breastfed baby - if exposed to biologically normal amounts of UVB radiation - is fully able to maintain his/her own levels of vitamin D regardless of the concentration of vitamin D in your milk.

Of note, human beings were designed to receive their vitamin D via sunlight and not from diet alone.

Your Baby And Vitamin D: The AAP

The AAP - also known as the American Academy of Pediatrics - recommends that exclusively breastfed infants begin receiving vitamin D supplements during the first two months of life. Bottle fed infants have no such recommendations since formula is vitamin D fortified.

Your Baby And Vitamin D Supplementation?

What's the big deal about supplementing?

Vitamin drops containing vitamin D often contain other vitamins that are not necessary for exclusively breastfed infants and ingredients which some moms may object to such as:

Propylene glycol

Sweeteners

Preservatives

So rather than interfere with your baby's developing digestive system, some researchers have suggested that a better idea may be to supplement you.

For some families the cost of vitamins is also an issue.

Your Baby And Vitamin D: Sun Supplementation

There is some growing evidence that the sun's rays - in small amounts - are beneficial to not only your vitamin D stores but to other diseases as well.

So what is safe exposure?

Research shows that exclusively breastfed Caucasian infants six months of age and younger living in a latitude comparable to the Midwestern United States can make adequate vitamin D with exposure to sunlight for 30 minutes per week - diaper only - or two hours per week - fully clothed without a hat. There is also currently no evidence that these small amounts of sun exposure increase your lifetime risk of skin cancer.

So how do you determine if your baby - and you - are at risk for vitamin D deficiency?

You have low amounts of vitamin D.

You - or your baby - are confined indoors during the day.

You live at higher latitudes than the research shows - Canada or Alaska.

You - and/or your baby - have darker skin pigmentation.

You always use sunscreen.

Of note: If your baby is exclusively breastfed, healthy, and full-term he/she should have adequate amounts of vitamin D from birth to six months if you have had adequate exposure to sunlight.

So what are you to do? There is no right or wrong answer here. Only you can best determine if you want to supplement or not. But you should not be forced into anything you are not comfortable with by mere fear tactics.

Blessings!

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