Safety of Vitamin D drops?

Mum of Two wrote:
"Lara" wrote in message
...
Mum of Two wrote:
"Amy" wrote:
wrote:
Our pediatrician recommended giving Vitamin D drops to our newborn to
supplement breastfeeding.

On sunlight and vitamin D, latitude as well as season makes a huge
difference. 30 minutes in the Boston winter will get you virtually no
Vtamin D conversion; a very different situation from my home town in
Australia. References and further discussion:
http://home.comcast.net/~ammawell/vitaminD.html

I solved the vitamin D problem by arranging the nursery so that her
changing table is in front of the east-facing window. I'm more than
positive that she gets 30 minutes a week of sun exposure - even on the
parts that are normally covered by a diaper - as I try to clean her up!

The only barrier I see to this is if people have tinted windows that
block
UV. Here, where we get lots of sun, not many people have them, but I'm
sure
in parts of the Northern US & Canada where sunny days are few, there are
tinted windows abound.

Standard window glass blocks UVB, which is the type of ultraviolet light
needed to make vitamin D.

Interesting, thanks! So obviously the advice we get here from our midwives
(as a mother to a slightly jaundiced winter baby) to have nappy-free time in
front of a window wrong?

Jeez, that's what my doula told me to do with #1. Public health nurse
told us to do vitamin D drops, but the doctor didn't.

Based on the number of mLs in a bottle and the number of days old he
is, figuring that you are supposed to give one mL of the liquid per
day, ds#2 has had about 1/5 the recommended amount. I figure some is
better than none. With ds#1 I didn't worry much about it from ages 3-7
months, because it was spring/summer and we were out in the sun all the
time. Then from 8 months or so, he was having yogurt and minigo, which
contain vitamin D.

#2, though, was 5 mo when the Rains Came, and we live north of the 49th
to boot, so I'm trying a little harder with him. Whenever the sidewalk
looks dry out the window we all race outside for some fresh air and
cloudshine, too.

Melania
(in wet, wet, wet Vancouver)

On Thu, 01 Dec 2005 11:42:27 +0800, Lara wrote:

Mum of Two wrote:

"Lara" wrote in message
Standard window glass blocks UVB, which is the type of ultraviolet light
needed to make vitamin D.

Interesting, thanks! So obviously the advice we get here from our midwives
(as a mother to a slightly jaundiced winter baby) to have nappy-free time in
front of a window wrong?

Well, if you open the window...

Lara

This is what we did when ds had jaundice. We were lucky as it was the
middle of summer and the bottom of our window swung right open. Most days
it was too hot to got outside. We were told sitting him in the shade would
be ok so we perched his moses basket on the garden table under the
parasol. Not ideal but that and lots of nursing sorted it after a couple
of weeks.

Jeni

It can also cause skin cancer if you're not careful.

Like everything else in life, there is a happy medium between too much
and not enough!

KR

tristyn wrote:
Amy wrote:
I solved the vitamin D problem by arranging the nursery so that her
changing table is in front of the east-facing window.

UVB doesn't pass through glass; she's not getting any of the light
required to synthesize D this way.

--
tristyn
www.tristyn.net

Is that true? My arm facing the sun used to get sunburned during long
car trips.

Renee

I guess more specifically I should have said that the official position of
the Canadian Pediatric Society is the use of Vitaimn D drops for breastfed
babies.

In Canada, we don't see a pediatrician routinely, just our family Dr. The
Peds work in hospitals and if your child is sick, that is pretty much the
only time you would see one. (At least that is the case in my province)

"Patagonia" wrote in message
news:5E1jf.29$_k3.19@dukeread01...

"Stormlady" wrote in message
...
All Dr.'s urge the use of vitamin D drops for breastfed babies,

My ped didn't recommend it for ds or for dd - with ds, I asked about
vitamins, bc I had read that some docs recommend them, but he said they
shouldn't need them.

Amy wrote:

Funny, I live north of the line marked "40" on the globe, and it's cold
here and no one gets any sun in the winter, and no one has said a word
to me about vitamin D drops...

You mean for adults? I think that might be because many of the foods
eaten by non-babies are fortified with vitamin D (milk being a big
one). I guess that's why they don't recommend additional vitamin D for
babies who eat a full diet of solids, they get fortification elsewhere,
like yogurt etc.

Elle

Oh - well, I'm in the states, so we see a ped quite regularly. Ours may be
unusual, but he has not recommended any sort of supplementation for either
of my kids. My nephew's ped, on the other hand, has recommended all sorts
of supplements for him, including iron starting at only a couple of weeks
old. Strange how different different docs can be, yes?


"Stormlady" wrote in message
.. .
I guess more specifically I should have said that the official position of
the Canadian Pediatric Society is the use of Vitaimn D drops for breastfed
babies.

In Canada, we don't see a pediatrician routinely, just our family Dr. The
Peds work in hospitals and if your child is sick, that is pretty much the
only time you would see one. (At least that is the case in my province)

"Patagonia" wrote in message
news:5E1jf.29$_k3.19@dukeread01...

"Stormlady" wrote in message
...
All Dr.'s urge the use of vitamin D drops for breastfed babies,

My ped didn't recommend it for ds or for dd - with ds, I asked about
vitamins, bc I had read that some docs recommend them, but he said they
shouldn't need them.

Thanks for all of your replies.

I've been researching this topic al over the web, and found a few
interesting tidbits:
1) Boston is at such a high latitude that direct sunlight can't create
any vitamin D through the winter until March 17th
2) Adults bridge this gap with vitamin D stored from summer sunlight,
and from fortified milk.
3) Infants have about a 2 month store at birth, assuming the mother was
not deficient
4) Breastmilk only has about 5% of the required vitamin D for infants,
the rest requires sunlight
5) There are no Vitamin D - only drops sold in the US. We can only buy
the "multivitamin" types with other vitamins also included (that are
redundant with breastmilk).
6) There are no documented problems with the drops, except that its
taste can cause some infants to be colicy.
7) There is a good blood test that pretty reliably detects vitamin D
deficiency (but it has the trauma of blood pricks)

Hope this helps others. I'm basically to the point of drops or pricks.
I have a lot of info that I'll be discussing with my pediatrician.

-MVL

wrote:
6) There are no documented problems with the drops, except that its
taste can cause some infants to be colicy.

I dunno about colicky, but those drops smell absolutely revolting, and
none of our infants has been willing to get them down without a fight.

Sasha was just given a prescription for them at her two-month
appointment, but I'm skeptical about getting them into her.

Michelle
Flutist

I dunno about colicky, but those drops smell absolutely revolting, and
none of our infants has been willing to get them down without a fight.



Michelle,

In my research, numerous people have posted that "Gerber Vitamin Drops"
taste better and are easier to get down than the more common
Tri-vi-sol. They are quite hard to find, but you can find a retailer
by choosing Healthcare - Vitamin Drops on this page:

http://www.gerber.com/wherebuy

-MVL