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

[FrogOfFroggHall]

I realised this today as I stumbled across the bottle. I absolutely knew I should do it but my toddler lost the bottle in the early days and out of sight out of mind. Just haven’t thought about it in months. I have just been so frazzled and now really beating myself up.

Obviously will start now. Will it make any difference? She’s nearly 6 months old now and EBF.

My level was shocking (9) and it’s taken a high dose course and 4000IU daily after that to bring it up to 66 and I’m still trying to increase it more
I think a lot of people don’t know about it
and I’m a pale redhead so thought I was ok!

I take a vit d spray everyday although it waned over the summer I took it every other day, but I have taking it regularly again.

I do think it’s a big problem nationwide .
To get sufficient vitamin D you need to expose quite a large area of skin for around 20 minutes every day (less or more depending on skin type) obviously without burning. Most people don’t do this.

Everybody needs to supplement between Oct and March in the UK.

I do often get my levels checked to make sure they’re optimal - as it’s so important.

To add to those brushing this off (not to the OP, btw, but those telling her she doesn’t need to start with the vit D because they didn’t with their kids), I once worked with a woman with rickets. When she wasn’t working she could sleep for hours - 16 hours a day. And she often came into work with her wrists strapped up. And she was white. Apparently her doctor said she had the lowest vitamin D he’d ever seen in a white person!

It’s just been summer so they’ve probably been able to make it from sunlight but would give from now as less sun strength. They will be fine- I always forgot and my kids are fine.

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.

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.

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

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

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!!

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

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.

Hi @Delatron can I please ask how you get your levels checked? Is this something a GP would do or would it be a private healthcare thing? And do they check vit D specifically or all your levels? Thanks ☺️

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.