Rickets on bbc one news now

[HarrietJones]

Do you take vitamin D supplements? They say they are free for under 5s & pregnant women on benefits.

I can't find a link at the moment & really should be getting kids ready for school!

I have only told by my midwife that I should take calcium + vit d, which is not totally wrong but the vit d contents in over the counter combination pills is too low. hv and gp never mentioned vit d at all, but the consultant we see for dc's skeletal problem said that we should supplement in the winter months.

did some research and also looked at what is recommended in other nothern european countries.

The link to BBC article about vitamin D deficiency its possible link to some child abuse and sids cases:

health

I was told vitamin supplements for my DC, bf for 6 months and all born close together, were unnecessary by more than one HVs after I asked having vaguely remembered reading something prior to having the DCs.

nancerama that was one of the key issues that the expert on the BBC was expressing concern about. He was very worried about how poorly informed most HCPs are with regards to the risks of Vitamin D deficiency and how to prevent it.

nancerama please take up with your HV. I was told about it from mine and so were others in my area, however, because of my illness I already knew about the benefits. Let's hope the message gets through to everyone.

Interesting, I did see something on BBC Breakfast but had no idea vit D deficiency could lead to illnesses such as MS. I thought it can only cause rickets.

So can you buy Surestart vitamin D for babies/toddlers? I thought all baby vitamins are multivitamins. DS is almost 1 and has a very healthy diet, will eat almost anything I put in front of him, plus lots of milk/dairy, so I didn't want to use supplements. I asked a pharmacist if you can get vitamin D for babies and she said no, it's only sold as part of multivitamin drops.

Agree that the lack of knowledge of the health professionals is shocking.

I can't emphasise how important Vit D is for everyone especially a baby. 3 months ago I almost lost my son because he was vit D deficient. He was well within his weight, looked very healthy and was developing at a reasonable pace. Then he had a seizure one evening that lasted for 10mins and he stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated he had another later in hospital which lasted 15mins. Vit D is responsible for the absorption of calcium. Important for brain dev, muscle dev, heart fnc, bone dev, WALKING, being able to sleep well etc. My son was exclusively breastfeed up until 6mths and then once on solids ate well. I used the Pregnacare range from before conception and I ate very well. But I was still vit D deficient. Its important to remember that vit D CAN NOT be obtained sufficiently from food it has to be from the sun or supplements. Many people on MN have been saying "as long as you eat this and that" this is incorrect! People this is a very serious issue don't give advice if you have no idea what you're talking about! The UK has a large percentage of adults who are vit D deficient or borderline deficient and its because of the lack of sunshine not a bad diet. Women who are deficient may never know they are unless they do a test. If you are deficient you will be unable to pass on enough during pregnancy to your baby. I thought we were a healthy family with a very balanced diet but that made no difference what we needed was sunlight or vit D supplements not a better diet. I urge parents please if you want to choose to not give your child any vit D please either move to a temperate country or have them tested of vit D and calcium. It could save their life! 1 in 3 babies are Vit D deficient and the problem seems to be getting worse here in the UK. This is the info coming from the DOH. Kids have developed Rickkets some babies have died because of this please please Don't take this lightly! It really hurt me that my son almost died because of something so simple.
Btw I have been informed by my sons paediatric consultants that. The info on vit D is not meeting the masses because the frontline health professionals are failing to pass on this info. Its not the easiest thing to pick up either that's why HV's and GP's failed to notice that my son was not well. Please please take vit D and possbly get tested to see if you are deficient because if you are like I was you would require a higher dose than the Pregnacare range provides.

parisriv - If you dont mind me asking did you spend a lot of time outside when you found out you were vit d deficient? just wondering if it was becasue of the uk weather or just from more people spending more time inside?

Wasn't rickets the reason why traditional school uniform is shorts, not trousers? To enhance sun exposure?

Parisriv, I am very sorry to hear what you've been through, I hope your DS is ok now, thank you for posting about this. I want to give DS vit D supplements, I've been meaning to for a while, but was put off by the fact that they only seem to be available as part of multivitamin drops. As a previous poster said, an overdose of vitamin D is not dangerous, but AFAIK an overdose of vitamin A, for example, can be. Since DS has a very healthy diet, I didn't want to use supplements. Hence my question: can I find a vitamin D supplement which doesn't contain any other vitamins?

I believe that parents have in the UK been so discouraged to allow their children out into the sun this was bound to happen...sun is not bad...but grilling yourself is...parents have been led to believe for a longtime they should not expose their children to natural sun-light...

you can buy vit d3 (colecalciferol) at holland&barrets or boots in different strengths (12.5 micrograms / 500 iu are recommended for children under 5) but I haven't found tablets that dissolve easily an taste nice here and internet search wasn't fruitful. and tbh the pharmacist was not very helpful either.
I am importing vigantoletten from germany but I don't know if online pharmacies will deliver to the uk.

I use abidec for my little boy as that was recommended by my hv. I take Holland and barratt vit d tablets.

I don't want to scaremonger here about the whole ms thing so to be hopefully clear- there are links between vit d deficiency and ms but that is not the whole picture as the scientists know that there must be other things, they just don't know all of them yet. Fingers crossed they hurry up and find out and get the cure!

So basically you can be deficient and not get ms but given that there is a link and something you can take to help, why take the risk?

My GP gave me a prescription for calcium with vit D when I was up the duff nothing more, my son got SMA until he was 1 but he's on cows milk now doesn't that have it in? no ones said anything to me about having to give kids supplements, TV keep on saying about tablets not being good for you, so I stopped taking such things ages ago, he's 20 months old should I get him something?

It's all the Islamic people that are the problem dressed head to toe, they get no sun light, lack of vitamin D is very high among those woman.

parisriv I wish there were some way of highlighting your post to draw it to the attention of a wider audience. I am so glad to hear you're both OK now.

Isn't it also necessary to have fat in your diet for the absorption of Vit D & calcium? i.e., all this fat-free milk not helping either.

I am rather shocked that some people would try to waste NHS resources to get this on prescription. :( I'm sure it must be available in the UK, I buy it here (NL) in the supermarket for around 6.50 euros and I'm only on my 3rd bottle (my son is 19 months). But then I gather some people get the doctor to prescribe aspirin - I digress...

I think the hyper-awareness of parents to the dangers of sunlight has been a significant factor in the sudden increase. It is as if the idea that restricting exposure at dangerous times, eg between 11-2pm isn't enough in their eyes, the child must be shaded and screened from all sunlight with very high factor blocks and special clothing requirements.
It is one of the attitudes that has changed significantly over the last decade or so, along with limiting children's time outside playing.

You can build up a store of vitamin D in the body that carries you through the winter, but I used to also give my children supplements.

Looking it up online you can OD on Vitimin D, it can cause birth defects and things.

Anyway I think I'm fine, I don't slaver him in cream, he will not drink milk without milkshake powder in it (guess whats in that), I'm guessing it's in milk anyway, I drink Soya milk and that has it added so I all ways assumed it must be naturally present in cow juice, he eats cereal and cheese etc.

As far as I'm aware, milk has very little vitamin D - certainly not enough to make a difference.

Horrible to think some parents have been falsely accused of killing their babies, or wrongly separated from their babies, because doctors didn't recognise vitamin D deficiency. That's heartbreaking.