Vitamin D Drops for BF babies ESSENTIAL

[cheshiremama89]

So DS is ebf and is 3 weeks old

Neither midwife nor HV told me I should be giving DS vit D drops

I found a free sample in a bounty pack and after reading about them and clear benefits I called my friend who is also a HV.

She states it is absolutely essential and couldn't believe neither MW/HV had said so!

Does else have experience of this xx

Ricketts is on the rise. Highest hospital admission rates for 50 years (Lancet). It’s still rare, but it’s life changing. Vitamin D deficiency in children and adults is not rare, it’s common, and has some side effects such tiredness and general aches and pains, that are often put down to other things.
Over 50% of the UK population have insufficient vitamin D levels and in winter up to 16% have severe deficiency BMJ It is not a minor issue. Anyone who routinely uses suncream (sensibly) should take a vitamin D supplement IMHO.

The advice now is for pregnant women to take VitD throughout pregnancy and BF.

Well this is news to me!

I have healthy 19 and 12 year olds. I am photosensitive and use factor 30-50 suncream/avoid the sun where possible pretty much all summer.

I've never taken vitamin supplements and neither have my children.

I ebf each for 18 months.

I wouldn't worry about it too much.

My DD is entitled to 'milk tokens', she EBF, every six weeks there is a voucher for the Vitamin drops which have Vit D in. I'd assume that was the same applied to the ones that you can buy.

There are poster campaigns in Hospitals, Surgeries and Children's Centers advocating giving Babies/Toddler vitamins.

UK specific advice about this... from 2007.

2003 advice from USA.

1982 advice from Scandanavia.

Thank you for all of the replies

I will be giving him daily drops after reading the NHS guidelines!

There really needs to be consistency postpartum it seems! X

I wouldn’t say it was essential though, given that this is relatively new advise and we’ve all survived pretty well since.

Well, vitamin D deficiency doesn't generally kill you. Just makes you less healthy!

We also apparently eat much less oily fish as a nation than we did a few centuries ago. There's a theory that the reduction in fish consumption is one of the reasons the Scottish health stats in particular are so poor- the traditional herring diet provided more vitamin D and of course they're even further north than the rest of the UK. Dunno if it's true. And we're certainly outside much less than we used to be when most of us were working on the land, which was only a couple of centuries ago. For most of the time humans have lived here, we've been outside a lot and apparently have eaten more fish than now.

We don’t spend enough time outside, we eat less fish, we use high factor sunscreens on ourselves and on our children.
Most of us are deficient
VitD drops have been routinely used for decades across continental Europe and Canada.
I thought no it’s a good thing.

babies are not left outside so much
babies travel in cars rather than on foot in prams
mothers are deficient in pregnancy without realising it and pass on their d deficiency to children
we don't get codliver oil in schools
we don't let children play outside routinely fears of cars on streets etc
hats and suncream at playtime
we don't shop to the same extent outdoors (online or in shopping centres now or big supermarkets) we don't carry our shopping home in the daylight hours when there is sunshine to make that vit D on our hands and faces minimum, and our babies hands and faces minimum

things HAVE changed since 30 years ago, it is not a fad to offer vitamin d drops NOW

Also, we don’t use full fat milk anymore.

Hmmmmm, I had #3 a few months ago and this hasn't been mentioned with any of them, #1 was born in 2010. I saw some drops for sale in boots the other day whixh made me wonder.

yanbu
I was never told either. which is a scandal tbh, could prevent some illnesses and therefore save the nhs a shitload of money to train hcp properly

I mainly knew because a sibling in another country had a baby the same time and there is was actively pushed so I made some research.

supplementing vit d3 is not a new thing as anyone being force fed given fish oil as child could testify. fish oil essentially a vit d3 supplement.

I was told by hv that the baby would get everything he needed from me but that I should take vitamin d. Recently went to a session about weening where the nutritionist told us we should be giving drops. Have started giving them to my ds (5months) just to be sure.

It so difficult when you get completely different advice and information from everyone. The same happened when I was struggling to establish breastfeeding -we got there in the end but it was so confusing and in the end just did what felt right to me.

OP - my health visitors said vitamin d drops from 6 months.

My NCT friend, who was 2 streets over but in a different borough and a different NHS trust, was told from birth.

They haven't quite ironed it out, I think! Don't panic - my DD didn't have them until 6 months and loads of kids don't have them at all and they're fine. You can start them now, and make sure your baby gets some time outside every day.

My toddler was diagnosed with rickets at 18 months and treated. Is now fine several years later but if it hadn't been caught and treated it would not have been fine. I now supplement all my kids with a spray that goes under the tongue. Easier than cod liver oil (which also works great) and readily available.

MrsLionHeart - Sorry to hear this. I was a war baby and when the NHS started we had cod liver oil and NHS orange juice from baby clinics. when I had my own children in the late 60s/70s, these were still available, along with A&D drops, as I mentioned above and little tins of Marmite. I think they sold discounted tins of formula, too. This was a real incentive to visit the clinic, get your baby weighed and meet other mothers. Health visitors were highly trained and there was a doctor on site for developmental checks and consultation, if you needed it.

It's depressing how post-natal and community health provision has declined in recent years. There's certainly still a need for it.

e-breastfed just under a year and breastfed for 2.5 years and mine didn’t get tickets. Didn’t give them vitamin D supplements

I was told to give the baby drops. I’ll be getting my levels tested very soon though so if I need heavy supplements (quite likely as I’ve been low before) would I then stop giving them to baby? She is 18 weeks and EBF

no baby still should have her own supplements.

it's not only rickets that is a risk with low vit d3, also fatique, thyroid issues, inflammatory diseases are more likely.

I didn't give DD these 4 years ago nor was i advised to and she is fine! I really wouldn't panic OP.

We were told during Early Years nutrition training that Government advice is to give all children under 5 a daily vitamin D supplement.

I was always told they only needed them at 6 months.

There are a couple of mumsnet posters who are very knowledgable about vit d. After reading their posts and doing my own research I started taking a high dose supplement and felt so much better within a few weeks. More alert, less foggy and lethargic. Apparently the uk guidelines suggest we need a lower dose then we should be taking.

I give all three of my under 5s vitamin d drops. All are/were bf.

The statistics are that 30-40% of children in the UK are vitamin D deficient in the winter. My gp here in Los Angeles says that he started testing all his newborns a few years ago and found that the vast majority were vitamin D deficient (a large percentage of his population are Orthodox Jews who cover much of their body). You need Vitamin D for just about every function in your body and being deficient means that some amount of your bodily functions won't operate properly. It's super easy and cheap to supplement with Vitamin D. Probably everyone in the UK should be supplementing to some degree.