To be panicking that I haven’t ever given 5-month-old vit D?

DS1 is 21 and we were given vit drops by the HV when he was 6 months old. They were free but hardly ever in stock so couldn't always get them.

You still don’t always get enough, it needs skin and a fair bit of skin exposed to the sun. I can’t do that without burning so I have to take vitamin D
people think they’re fine but realistically how many people go to work, sit in an office or work in a building all day then come home and have had virtually no exposure?
most people are deficient

DD was born in 2009 and was given vit D drops by the hospital. Niece was born 2008 in a different part of the country and wasn’t. Some hospitals clearly ahead with this.

I genuinely thought it has been longer than that ,my apologies.

I had ebf babies in two different parts of England and in neither was this ever mentioned by health professionals or any family or friends. In fact I'm not sure if I've heard of it before reading this thread so I'd question it being recommended for decades.

Eta I was intrigued enough to look this up and it says it started in July 16 which explains why it was never on anyone's radar when my children were born

It was standard at the hospital where DD was born but that’s because we have a very large black community here. It wasn’t at the hospital where my niece was born.

Until about a week ago it was sunny every day for about 4 months! They'll be fine.

Edited to add: just start them now so they're supplemented over autumn and winter.

The human race didn’t use to live most of their lives indoors, and weren’t as careful to keep their children out of the sun.
The survival of the human race means some people (by no means all) surviving long enough to have at least one child. We want to live a bit longer than that these days, and in good enough health to enjoy it. We also aren’t prepared to bury several children along the way.
OP’s baby will be absolutely fine, but vitamin D is definitely important on a population level. It’s all these tiny improvements together that give us the quality of life we have now.

Thanks for the reminder OP!

My baby is also 5mo and also EBF and I’ve totally neglected to give any drops. I will start doing it now, but I’m also not worried about the missed doses (and I have a medical background).

No one told me about it until we were about 4 months in so I bought some myself and started then. Not everyday, just when I remember. It's fine, baby's have survived centuries without it, just start now.

I agree that it’s not well publicised to the wider public, but my HVs were giving out drops after both my DDs were born. And we don’t qualify for any benefits so I assume this was just a universal thing to give out drops to new parents. They did it at the HV visit that you get at ~10 days old.

Might have been an area thing, rather than countrywide though.

My GP said everyone should ideally be taking daily vit D supplements due to being in Scotland. Not enough exposure during the year to daylight.

I’m thinking the government haven’t done a very good job in communicating this.

Eh? I’ve got a four year old and have never heard this!!

For adults I highly recommend the Better You spray D3 + K2. You need the K2 too. I got my levels up to around 90-100 using this spray through the winter.

Hi - GPs would run it as part of a blood test if you had certain symptoms -
so excess tiredness maybe. They wouldn’t run them just to check. They would run a full blood panel if you had symptoms.

I pay privately but it’s not too expensive. I do it as part of a hormone test with Randox every 6 months or so.

I have had them done by GPs when I had chest pain/fatigue etc.

There are worse things to forget. Don’t beat yourself up and just start now.

Read the whole thread. As a nation we are vit D deficient. I don’t know I was until later in life - I would have said I was fine.

My oldest three DC take vit D supplements. They're 18, 15 and 10.

I also live in Scotland where most of the population is deficient of Vit D. I can understand why OP is getting frazzled. Don't worry just start today OP.

I take it daily myself and have done for years. My youngest was prem and prescribed Dalivit when born. I had to give it to him in his breast milk via syringe in his first year. He refuses the tablets as a child. I tried my best!!

Never knew people were supposed to. I haven't given it to my 3 and I doubt any of them take it. I wouldn't be worrying

TBF in the UK we should all have vit D supplements, most of us don't get enough good quality sunlight to allow our bodies to produce it
Vitamin D - BDA https://share.google/P0gBRdL57FJ2TRcUV
Just start now OP

My babies were 2010 & 2013 and I remember getting vitamin drops from the Sure Start centre.

Remembering to get them into the DCs is another issue though!

If you do give them, that's great, but it's not worth beating yourself up over when life's got in the way.

I didn't give any vitamins to my babies and they are fine. I don't even think this advice was around when I had mine.