Supplementing Vit D while breastfeeding? Good idea or naw?
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Hi,
My daughter had her first pediatric appointment yesterday and one of the things that came up was the need for my wife to supplement vitamin D (6500 iu) because our baby is breastfed and supposedly breast milk is naturally deficient in D. That seems kind of strange to me that breast milk would be deficient in anything a growing baby needs but I’ve yet to look into this extensively. Breast milk must be natural high in retinol and lower in D for a reason, right? I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts/ideas on this.
Thanks!
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Worth mentioning is that "vitamin D" is more of a steroid (hormone?) molecule than a vitamin, which could give some clues on how [safe it is] to supplement with, for an adult or developing baby.
I guess the form used would matter too (D2 / D3) and how much sunlight your daughter gets, as UV reaching the skin triggers the conversion into the active form - alluding to it being a tightly controlled process.
@Amazoniac knows more!
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@Rayoshi-Pufamoto said in Supplementing Vit D while breastfeeding? Good idea or naw?:
Hi,
My daughter had her first pediatric appointment yesterday and one of the things that came up was the need for my wife to supplement vitamin D (6500 iu) because our baby is breastfed and supposedly breast milk is naturally deficient in D.
I will give you my amateur thoughts on this issue. I believe that I have read somewhere that the average person is typically deficient in vitamin D because they avoid sunlight and do not spend enough time in the sun. And when they know that they are going to be exposed to natural sunlight, they often smear chemicals on their skin and thereby 'screen' the natural sunlight before can do its job in the body. If the mother is vitamin D deficient it is not surprising to me that the breast milk will not have adequate levels of vitamin D. It would be prudent have the mother's vitamin D level tested. Both mother and baby need adequate levels for bone health among other things. See
https://vitamindsociety.org/ -
@Rayoshi-Pufamoto said in Supplementing Vit D while breastfeeding? Good idea or naw?:
supposedly breast milk is naturally deficient in D
If "naturally" means "on average" then it's true, but...
@DavidPS said in Supplementing Vit D while breastfeeding? Good idea or naw?:
I will give you my amateur thoughts on this issue. I believe that I have read somewhere that the average person is typically deficient in vitamin D
But this seems to be inline with the general population: The overall prevalence rate of vitamin D deficiency was 41.6%, with the highest rate seen in blacks (82.1%), followed by Hispanics (69.2%). [...] Vitamin D deficiency was significantly more common among those who [are] not consuming milk daily (all P < .001).
You should of course try to spend more time in the sun with the infant and increase mother's dietary intake for example with low-fat milk.
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I don't, but supplementation must be safer than in pregnancy.
The concentrations aren't increased to a worrying extent, can elevate the content to 5 mcg/L. An infant might consume up to 1 L a day and the inflated recommended intake for them is 10 mcg/d.
The excessive supplementation to enrich milk with vitamin D may induce deficiencies in the mother, than may manifest in milk.
