Sea, pool, walks in the sun - remember how we used to spend the summer days, without any disturbing thought about strong and dangerous radiation? As we grew older, the danger of the sun's radiation increased, and with it increased awareness of its damage. Today, when we are already parents, we make sure our children are out in the sun-protected and preferably not during peak hours. The problem is that many parents do not know that the sun also has benefits, and its rays are even essential for the proper development of children.
In fact, the sun's rays are the body's only way to produce vitamin D - which is a vital vitamin for the proper growth of children and its role in helping to absorb calcium in the body. Also, Vitamin D helps strengthen bones and teeth and its deficiency can cause various health problems.
Vitamin D is also found in foods, but its dietary sources are not very significant: The only foods that contain a large amount of vitamin D are fish oil, fatty fish, liver, and chicken eggs fed with vitamin D.
New data reveals that vitamin D is important, in many ways, for overall health and disease prevention, and to perform its functions, the body needs high vitamin D levels. Therefore, a decision was made at the American Academy of Children (AAP) to revise its recommendations for the consumption of vitamin D in the amount of 400 lbs per day for infants, children, and adolescents.
Why is it important to consume vitamin?
Vitamin D intake in pregnant and breastfeeding women significantly affects the levels of vitamin D of fetuses and their babies. A study examining vitamin D levels found that babies born to mothers with vitamin D levels above ng/ml 20 had higher birth weight. Another study looked at 9-year-olds whose mothers were given a vitamin D dietary supplement during pregnancy and found these children had high bone density.
It has also been found that in most types of transdermal (infant food compound) sold in Israel, enrichment is carried out. However, breastfed babies or babies fed both breastfeeding and transdermal need supplementation.
Why Causes Vitamin Deficiency?
- Inadequate intake of vitamin D can cause difficulties in growth, apathy and fatigue, restlessness and irritability, and cramps that result from low levels of calcium in the blood.
- Research evidence proves that vitamin D supplementation in infants can reduce the risk of type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes).
- New evidence in adults shows that vitamin D also plays a role in preventing autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and several cancers (breast, prostate, ovarian, and colon cancer), and reducing morbidity in type 2 diabetes.
It is important to know that vitamin D deficiency is not only limited to infants but appears throughout the life cycle. Therefore, especially during periods when infants, children, and adolescents experience accelerated growth, it is recommended and even necessary to enrich their diet with vitamin D supplements.
