> Breast-fed babies may need extra vitamin D
> Mon Oct 21, 7:54 AM ET
>
> Marilyn Elias USA TODAY
>
> Babies who are breast-fed exclusively should get a supplement of 200 units of
> vitamin D a day, U.S. pediatricians are likely to advise in the next few
> months.>
> Increasing reports of rickets in babies and toddlers prompted nutrition
> experts at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to suggest the
> recommendation. The AAP executive board is expected to approve the change by
> early next year, says Ronald Kleinman of Massachusetts General Hospital, a key
> nutrition adviser to the group.
>
> Infant formula is fortified with vitamin D, which deposits calcium salts in
> the bones and prevents the skeletal disease. But babies exclusively nursed get
> very little of the vitamin from breast milk. Direct sunlight is the other
> major source, but parents have been told to use sunscreen or keep babies in
> the shade to prevent burns and skin cancer.
>
> Black babies who are breast-fed are especially vulnerable because their skin
> blocks absorption of the vitamin from sunlight, says pediatrician Frank Greer
> of the University of Wisconsin Medical School. He spoke on a weekend panel at
> the AAP meeting in Boston.
>
> There's no national monitoring system for rickets cases, so an upswing in the
> disease can't be verified. ''But more cases are coming to our attention,''
> says William Dietz , director of nutrition and physical activity at the
> Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). A study of
> levels of vitamin D in children is being started by the CDC and should reveal
> the extent of vitamin deficiency in the next couple of years.

...<snip, more at URL below>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20021021/en_usatoday
/4550577

Or

http://makeashorterlink.com/?P57923332

-- Jodine

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