Angela Onwuzoo Citing the importance of vitamin D required to maintain blood calcium and bone health, a nutrition expert, Nwabumma Asouzu, has said babies need vitamin D supplementation despite being exclusively breastfed. Asouzu, who is a Registered Dietician-Nutritionist at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, said the quantity of vitamin D available in mothers’ milk was inadequate to provide babies with healthy bones without vitamin D supplementation. The dietician noted that babies depend on their mothers for essential vitamin D and calcium, stressing that vitamin D and calcium play key dietary roles in children’s bone health.
The World Health Organisation says the main sources of vitamin D for the infant include vitamin D obtained from the mother during pregnancy and after birth from diet and supplements. “Vitamin D is required to maintain blood calcium and bone health. The consequences of vitamin D deficiency in infancy classically manifest as soft malformed bones (rickets), seizures due to low blood calcium, and difficulty breathing “At the time of diagnosis, infants with vitamin D deficiency rickets have very low serum 25(OH)D concentration, below 25 nmol/L and most have not received vitamin D supplementation.
“Vitamin D deficiency is also thought to increase the risk of other diseases including type 1 diabetes later in childhood”, the WHO said. Asouzu who spoke in an interview with PUNCH Healthwise said vitamin D.
