Report recommends return to vitamin D supplements
Asian infants are especially susceptible to vitamin deficiencies
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Thursday, 31, Aug 2006 12:01
All infants should regularly be given vitamin D supplements until they reach two years of age, a new study says, with researchers suggesting that deficiencies are becoming more commonplace in Britain.
Research published today in the Archives of Disease in Childhood shows that the problem is more acute for children of Asian ethnicity, who could be up to eight times more susceptible to vitamin D deficiency.
A shortage or complete lack of the vitamin is often associated with rickets, abnormal tooth formation and stunted growth, but it can also lead to serious complaints such as heart disease, forms of cancer and mental health problems in later life.
Vitamin D is not readily available in significant quantities in any food, apart from fatty fish including salmon and tuna, so the best way for children to be given it is via supplements in fortified milk.
In a study conducted between 1994 and 2005, researchers say that there were 14 cases of vitamin D deficiency at a primary care trust in the north-west of England, but that 12 of the incidents occurred within the last five years, and that "virtually" all involved children of Asian ethnicity.
None of the vitamin D deficient children had received supplements, with the study's authors suggesting that health authorities are phasing out supplement programmes due to relative high costs and the apparent rarity of cases.
But the researchers assert that the cost of the deterrent is cheaper than that of the treatment.
"We therefore suggest that supplementation with vitamin D of all babies of Asian origin for the first two years of life might be the economic answer to a growing problem," they write.