Pediatricians Recommend Doubling Vitamin D for Kids

This is an article from the The Wall Street Journal as it relates to children's health I am reposting it here with a link to the original article.

Posted by Sarah Rubenstein

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The case for plenty of vitamin D continues to grow. The American Academy of Pediatrics is now doubling its recommendation of the amount of the vitamin that kids should get.

The new recommendation comes amid a steady stream of reports about the benefits of Vitamin D. There’s been discussion of its ability to help prevent heart disease, cancer and mortality risk. For instance, research has suggested that women with low levels of vitamin D when they’re diagnosed with breast cancer are more likely to die from the disease than those who have higher levels.

The pediatrics academy said its recommendations also come because vitamin D helps prevent rickets, a bone-softening disease that continues to crop up in kids, and because enough vitamin D throughout childhood may reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

The revised guidelines “are based on evidence from new clinical trials and the historical precedence of safely giving 400 IU of vitamin D per day in the pediatric and adolescent population,” the academy wrote in a statement. (Click on the PDF icon at right to read the recommendations and the rationale, published here with the permission of the AAP.)

The academy is now recommending 400 daily units of vitamin D for children from their first days of life through adolescence. That means some teens and kids, including breast-feeding infants, may need daily supplements, the Associated Press reports. Infant formula contains vitamin D, the AP explains, while breast milk is sometimes deficient.

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