Is your child getting enough Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin?

Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin which is crucial for children’s growth and development. It helps the body to absorb minerals like calcium and builds strong teeth and bones. Children and adults can restore deficiency of Vitamin D if they sit under the sun for 20 minutes each day. Our ancestors rarely suffered from Vitamin D deficiency as being pastoral people they spent most of their time under the sun. Recent studies suggest that Vitamin D deficiency is rising in urban areas where as many as 90 per cent children are affected by it.

Encourage children to play outdoors

These children belong to the upper social strata and have no nutritional deficiency as such, but due to their lack of outdoor activities, they suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. The modern lifestyle only allows a limited external engagement where most people live in multistoried apartments with minimum access to open spaces for outdoor activities. Urban parents prefer to keep their children within tightly scheduled routines that include school, tuition, hobby classes and then back home. Even during their off-time children these days like to play on their multimedia devices rather than going out to play with peers outside. As a result, there is a serious lack of the sunshine vitamin in urban Indian children today. These manifest when children complain of aches in arms and legs, more so after playing or exercising. A recent holistic survey of different metropolitan cities in India shows 83 per cent children in Pune are affected by Vitamin D deficiency as compared to 90 per cent children of Delhi. Encouraging children to play outside in the sun, whether it’s cycling, running or swimming in open air, is the key to solving the Vitamin D deficiency issue.

Babies also need sunshine

In fact, studies show that women who are deficit in Vitamin D will give birth to such children. Ideally, both the mother and children should go out in the sun wearing half-sleeve cotton clothes, which allow absorption of the required vitamin. In case of neonatal, babies are also hardly out in the sun.

WHO has come up with a recommendation where newborn babies must be supplied with Vitamin D through sunlight or supplements in the first few months of life. An infant between the ages of 1-2 years requires 400 IU per day, while older children need 600 IU.

Especially, in the first two years, if a baby is deficit in this vitamin, it will affect their initial performance in school, tolerance level of physical activity and attention span as well. Prolonged shortage of Vitamin D can lead to sluggishness, slow cognitive development and even cause bone deformation (rickets), seizures and respiratory problems.

Enjoy the outdoors! (Source: Dreamstime)

Benefits of Vitamin D

While most people think benefits of Vitamin D is only restricted to bone health, one must know that it is much more than that. Stable levels of vitamin D in the system helps physical development at multiple levels:

Boosts healthy bones and teeth.

Accelerates weight loss.

Strengthens immune and nervous systems

Improves cognitive function.

Promotes better cardiovascular health.

Regulates insulin level.

Decreases risk of asthma, dermatitis and eczema.

Wards off mood swings.

It is not too hard to restore Vitamin D deficiency in infants and children if following steps can be taken by the parents:

Vitamin D enriched diet –  Include food items like Milk, Salmon, Tuna, Egg Yolk, Cheese, Yogurt, Orange Juice, Cerealin regulation in daily diet.

In case of serious deficiency request the doctor to prescribe over the counter supplements for your child.

Engage your child in outdoor activities where they get to spend some time in the sun. For infants, try to put them under gentle sunlight during monsoon and winter season especially.

Breastfeeding mothers must check with their doctors if their infants need additional supplement of Vitamin D as breast milk doesn’t have much.

Avoid a Vitamin D overdose

Though Vitamin D is significant for a child’s health, one must be aware of not getting an overdose of it. While out in the sun, be cautious about sunburn and try to use a doctor’s prescribed sunscreen, put on a hat, sunglasses and try to get under a cool shade after a while. Consult your doctor for required Vitamin D dosage so that the toxicity does not build up, which often causes nausea, weakness and frequent urination.

(The writer is Senior Consultant of Department of Pediatrics – CK Birla Hospitals, CMRI.)