Appropriate dosage and supplementation of vitamin D for newborns

Proper vitamin D supplementation for babies is always the concern of many parents. Parents need knowledge about this issue to help their children develop comprehensively.

Children need vitamin D for healthy growth and development. Without adequate vitamin D intake, children are at risk of rickets. Parents should pay attention to getting enough vitamin D every day for children, right from birth.

1. The role of vitamin D with infants
Vitamin D plays an important role in infant development, namely:

- Support the development of children's skeleton.
- Needed during tooth development and absorption of phosphorus, calcium in intestine and kidney.
- Participate in the process of synthesis, hormone secretion of the body.

Vitamin D has an important role in the development of young children (Artwork).

2. Dosage of vitamin D necessary for infants

- For exclusively or partially breastfed babies: a few days after birth, the baby's need for vitamin D is 400IU / day.
- For weaned babies: for those who drink less than 1 liter of milk per day, they need to supplement 400IU / day.

3. How to supplement vitamin D for babies

Supplement vitamin D through sunbathing

- This is the most common and easy way. If the mother eats well and has enough milk to breastfeed, the baby needs only 15 minutes of sunbathing a day to get enough vitamin D.
- The best time for children to sunbathe is from 7-9 am and after 5 pm. At this time, the ultraviolet rays in the sun are weak, so it does not affect the baby's delicate skin.
- Maximum sunbathing time should only be from 10-30 minutes and for 10 consecutive days.
- In some cases, the more the mother needs to sunbathe vitamin D for the baby:

+ Baby is born in the winter.
+ The baby's living environment lacks sunlight.
+ The mother has a history of vitamin D deficiency.

Parents note that sunbathing properly for children to best absorb vitamin D (Artwork).

Increase vitamin D for mothers
Because in the newborn period, babies mainly breastfeed. Therefore, the mother herself can also increase the intake of foods that increase vitamin D into the body to be metabolized into breast milk. Mothers should add the following foods to their daily diet:

- Milk
- Butter
- Gan
- Cod liver oil
- Yolk
- Preparations of soy

Use vitamin D supplements

If a child is breastfed regularly and sunbathers regularly but still lacks vitamin D, parents should take their children to see a specialist. Doctors will base on a child's vitamin D deficiency to determine whether to use the appropriate medications. Parents must not buy medicine for their children.

4. When will vitamin D be supplemented for children?
Starting in infancy, children must have received the amount of vitamin D needed. Mother needs to pay additional attention until she is able to walk, she can go out much more to get more exposure to sunlight. Along with that, children have a varied diet, rich in nutrients, especially foods containing vitamin D.