Use of vitamin D supplements during infancy in an international feeding trial

Abstract

Objective To examine the use of vitamin D supplements during infancy among the participants in an international infant feeding trial. Design Longitudinal study. Setting Information about vitamin D supplementation was collected through a validated FFQ at the age of 2 weeks and monthly between the ages of 1 month and 6 months. Subjects Infants (n 2159) with a biological family member affected by type 1 diabetes and with increased human leucocyte antigen-conferred susceptibility to type 1 diabetes from twelve European countries, the USA, Canada and Australia. Results Daily use of vitamin D supplements was common during the first 6 months of life in Northern and Central Europe (>80% of the infants), with somewhat lower rates observed in Southern Europe (>60 %). In Canada, vitamin D supplementation was more common among exclusively breast-fed than other infants (e.g. 71% v. 44% at 6 months of age). Less than 2% of infants in the USA and Australia received any vitamin D supplementation. Higher gestational age, older maternal age and longer maternal education were study-wide associated with greater use of vitamin D supplements. Conclusions Most of the infants received vitamin D supplements during the first 6 months of life in the European countries, whereas in Canada only half and in the USA and Australia very few were given supplementation.

Vitamin D in public health nutrition

“…Six of the papers in this issue focus on children and adolescents ( 2 , 3 , 6 , 11 , 19 , 24 ) . Black and co-workers ( 19 ) studied vitamin D intakes in a group of children and a group of teens in Ireland who had participated in the Children's and Teens’ National Nutrition Surveys in 2004 and 2007.…”

“…Vitamin D supplements have been recommended to children aged 0-2 years in Northern Europe for decades to combat rickets (5) . Lehtonen et al (24) conducted a survey on the use of supplements in 2159 infants aged 1-6 months in Europe, North America and Australia based on data from the TRIGR study -a longitudinal study examining the effect of infant weaning on to a hydrolysed infant formula on incidence of type I diabetes in those with increased genetic susceptibility. Their results revealed that the majority of the infants were supplemented in Europe, approximately half in Canada, yet very few in the USA and Australia.…”

Vitamin D and the Breastfeeding Infant: Family Medicine Clinicians’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices

“…Therefore, the AAP (Wagner, 2008) and the National Academy of Medicine (formerly, Institute of Medicine, 2011) recommend that all breastfed infants and formula-fed infants receiving less than 1 liter of formula per day receive supplementation with 400 IU of vitamin D daily (Institute of Medicine, 2011; Wagner et al, 2008). However, compliance with this recommendation is quite poor in the United States, with studies showing < 2% of all infants receiving vitamin D supplementation (Lehtonen et al, 2014). Recent studies have found that maternal supplementation (4,000-6,400 IU daily or 150,000 IU monthly) is a safe and effective way of achieving vitamin D sufficiency for exclusively breastfeeding infants (Hollis et al, 2015; Oberhelman et al, 2013; Thiele, Senti, & Anderson, 2013).…”

“…D supplementation (Lehtonen et al, 2014). Recent studies have found that maternal supplementation (4,000-6,400 IU daily or 150,000 IU monthly) is a safe and effective way of achieving vitamin D sufficiency for exclusively breastfeeding infants (Hollis et al, 2015;Oberhelman et al, 2013;Thiele, Senti, & Anderson, 2013).…”

Vitamin D levels at birth and risk of type 1 diabetes in childhood: a case–control study

“…Most of case-control studies have pointed out that lower intake of vitamin D during early life is associated with higher risk of type 1 diabetes, and a meta-analysis including studies published up to 2011 [7] has estimated a pooled odds ratio (OR) of 0.71 (95 % CI 0.51-0.98) for vitamin D supplementation with respect to non-supplementation. Results, however, might have been hampered by misclassification of vitamin D intake, generally assessed through questionnaires [8]. Managed Heterogeneities among studies might be due to differences among populations in levels of solar ultraviolet B radiation at different latitudes, dietary supplementation, genetic factors and age of examined people.…”