Mil again!!!

[pumpkinsweetie]

Due to previous problems with my fil and mil, me and my H have stopped seeing them for a while
...anyway i got a text of her today which has really hurt me AIBU to think this text is insulting considering my childrens meals are all cooked from scratch & they are fed very well or do u think she was being helpful?

This is the text
Asda is to give kids under three free vitamin d tablets from sunday to counter rickets x

Vitamin is found in VERY SMALL amounts in food, and with the sunshine in this country (not much) alot of adults and children are deficient as a result. You need 20 mins in the sunshine EVERY DAY to have a good level of Vitamin D in your body. I think the new guidelines say that you should start giving babies vitamin D drops from 6 months.

She may have been being helpful!

But you can store vitamin D do you don;t need sun every day all year - sun every day April-Sept should be enough (and not sun just daylight).

There's not enough Vit D in breast milk and babies rarely exposed to enough sun so vit D drops a good idea.

My memory isn't going quite yet then, pumpkins

Helpful or not she sounds downright poisonous. Your poor DH, growing up with the pair of them!

Yes kewcumber, but it's actually sunlight you need exposure to, not daylight. The further you are from the equator the longer you'll need in the sun, and you need exposure without any sunscreen.

Also, we don't get much sun in this country even in the spring/summer months, which is why this is a growing problem in the UK. Even moreso for people with brown and black skin.

yes sootie but daylight is sunlight - there is no other kind of natural light My distinction about it being daylight is that people think you need to be in the sun ie warm direct sun for 20 mins a day between April and Sept. You don't, you just need to be outside in the daylight (ie not in shade or covered up). The 20 mins between April and Sept takes into account the lower levels of sunlight in this country.

Why would people with dark skin need more exposure? It is because of biology ie used to sunnier climate generations back?

If so, isn't this a real problem for the many girls and women people who live in the midlands and north of England who cover faces and arms all year round because of cultural beliefs? Perhaps that is the reasoning behind Asda's giveaway. Good on them.

That's exactly it, Creepy.

People with dark skin have more melanin and absorb less of the suns rays - it protects them from harsher sunlight in hoptter countries but isn't really designed for wimpy sunlight countries like northern Europe. Plaer skinned people have very little melanin and therefore little sun protection allowing maximum absorption of wimpy sunlight. Sadly inadequate for protection in hotter countries though.

Vitamin D deficiency is a big problem with darker skinned people in northern climates particularly in those communities where women (in particular) tend to be more covered when they do go out in the sun.

ALl of UK would be considered a problme - from memory its countries above 42 degrees latitude that don't get any effective Vit D from sun in winter.

Oh. That is sad. Is there no help / awareness campaign about it? My ILs live in the midlands and many women and girls are always covered even on the warmest days.

Hopefully HVs are on the ball.

Madrid is 40degrees north so anywhere north of that in essence.

I think midwives in particular keep an eye out for it as it also affects breastfed babies. I seem to recall there was a campaign targetting GP's too but I might be wrong about that.

Sorry thats a bit of a hijack!

Has there been recent cases of rickets in the uk?

yes www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16696800
but rickets not the only things caused by vitamin D deficiency. thats the extreme end.

Tameside hospital alone gets 70 patients with rickets a year compared to 20 a year ten years ago, I assume that nationally that adds up to hundreds if not into the thousands of cases a year but I couldn;t find national statistics.

www.tamesidehospital.nhs.uk/documents/FOI2011131.pdf

What else does it cause?

adults: aches and pains, weakness, Osteomalacia
Children as above but also - rickets, tooth delay, poor growth

I think there are a few others but less common.

and increased infections

But haven't researched properly.

There are now also though to be links with diabetes but I think thats still being investigated

What's the osteo one?

osteomalacia is basically the adult form of rickets.

Maybe she meant well but with the way shes been behaving of late i took it to heart

So are Asda handing out free vitamin D?
Cant say I've seen any publicity

Oh and ignore the text