August 5th, 2009

Did you know that most U.S. kids aren’t getting enough vitamin D?

Reports Reuters:

Most US kids aren’t getting enough vitamin D, a report in Pediatrics shows, raising their risk of weak bones and, possibly, heart disease.

While the new findings shouldn’t spur parents to start mega-dosing their kids with the vitamin, most children could benefit from a little more sunshine, Dr. Michal L. Melamed of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, told Reuters Health. And giving children a multivitamin containing 400 international units (IUs) of vitamin D is a good idea too, she added, especially in the winter months.

A few small studies have suggested that vitamin D deficiency may be widespread among US children, Melamed and her team note in their report. To get a sense of how common the problem is nationwide, they looked at data on 6,275 children and young adults one to 21 years old from the 2001-2004 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey.

Nine percent were classified as “deficient” in vitamin D, meaning the concentration of the nutrient in their blood was below 15 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), while 61% were vitamin D “insufficient,” with levels between 15 and 29 ng/mL.

Deficiency was more common in older children, girls, obese individuals, those who drank milk less than once a week and those who spent more than four hours a day in front of a TV, computer or video screen. Non-Hispanic black children and Mexican-Americans also were more likely than whites to be deficient in vitamin D.

Find out more at Reuters.