Whether you're feeding your baby formula or breast milk, you may be wondering about whether you should be providing vitamin D supplementation. Formula contains all of the vitamin D your growing baby needs, but breast milk is often quite low in the essential vitamin, because of limited maternal vitamin D intake and limited sun exposure.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is essential to human health. It helps you take up calcium from the digestive tract, which you need to maintain the integrity of your skeletal system. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to rickets, or soft bones, and is also linked to other systemic disorders, including immune system malfunction. You obtain the vitamin from some foods, including nuts and seeds, but one of the most effective ways of getting plenty of vitamin D is getting sufficient sun exposure, which allows you to make it yourself.
Breast Milk and Formula
There are two options for feeding babies less than a year old -- breast milk and formula. While pediatricians often recommend starting some solid food at 6 months of age, most babies should rely on either formula or breast milk for the majority of their calories through the first year of life, says Dr. Scott Cohen in his book "Eat, Sleep, Poop." Formula has plenty of vitamin D in it, but breast milk is often low in the vitamin, because many women don't get enough vitamin D in their own diets and get little sun.
Supplementing the Baby
Your pediatrician will likely recommend that you give your baby a daily supplement containing 400 IU of vitamin D. These are available in drop form for ease of use. Once your baby begins eating solid food as a significant portion of daily calories -- generally after a year of age -- you may no longer need to give the supplement, assuming you're providing a variety of foods
Alternatives
A 2008 study in the "Journal of the American College of Nutrition" by Dr. Sarah Taylor and colleagues says that rather than supplementing your baby, you can supplement yourself to bring your breast milk vitamin D concentrations up to necessary levels. The authors suggest that 6,400 IU of vitamin D each day, taken by the mother, brings breast milk vitamin D to an average of 873 IU/L, which is sufficient to provide for a baby's needs.
References
- "Eat, Sleep, Poop"; Scott Cohen, M.D.; 2010
- FamilyDoctor.org: Vitamin D
- "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Vitamin D Supplementation during Lactation to Support Infant and Mother; Sarah Taylor et al; 2008
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