Low Vitamin D

[Worriedtodeath]

My daughter's vitamin D is low. SHe's 2 years old. Has been on the Gluten-free Casein-free diet for 4 months now. She drinks almond milk and has almond meal in her bready stuff.

the acutal test was

Vitamin d, 25-hydroxy 24.9l ng/ml range 32.00-100.00

Her calcium was

calcium, ionized, serum 5.5 mg/dl range 4.5-5.6

phosphorus, serum 5.4 mg/dl range 4.5-5.6

That's all I have as they only ran a cbc and IgG total, subclass, and IgE level. The nurse didn't order the comeprehensive metabloic panel and I don't know what happened to testing minerals and vitamins levels. I thought there would be more things looked at.

Dr was to use a mutlivitamin with vitamin d in it. I just want to supplement only the things she actually needs and isn't getting thru diet.

Any recomendations to a Vitamin d supplement for a 2 year old?

Or other things I should be looking at?

Stacie

[AndreaB]

I don't know about a standalone vit d, but we use Freeda Chewable Children's Multivitamins. We haven't had our children's vitamin levels checked but we did start giving these to my youngest son when he was 2.

Our local gluten free store carries them, otherwise they can be found online.

[tarnalberry]

a multivit isn't such a bad idea, but the best way to get vit D is sunlight. you can get FAR more sunlight from 10-15 minutes of exposure every few days than almost any sort of supplementation (without sunblock). (there are some theories that relatively chronic lowered levels of vit D in the country.)

[TestyTommy]

Yeah. let he play out in the sun. The body needs to get plenty of sun in the summer, so it can make and store enough Vitamin D to get us through the winters. Idiots who tell us not to go into the sun without sunscreens are causing epidemic levels of Vitamin D deficiency.

[Joni63]

I have low vitamin D right now and have spent some time researching about it. I've learned and my Nutritionist/Naturopath has told me when your vitamin D levels are low, the sun and a regular multi-vitamin isn't enough to get the levels up to where they should be. It will only maintain them where they are.

I have no idea about amounts for a 2 year old, but I can tell you I am taking significantly higher doseages than a multi offers. And within a month I already do feel a difference.

[Fimac]

I have a 12 year old who is low in vitamin d. The endocrinologist suggestion since he will take pills was to use the vit d for babies. You could add some drops to a drink if she will not take is as is. Did any one tell you how much she should get each day to get her levels up ?

[Ken70]

I have low vitamin D right now and have spent some time researching about it. I've learned and my Nutritionist/Naturopath has told me when your vitamin D levels are low, the sun and a regular multi-vitamin isn't enough to get the levels up to where they should be. It will only maintain them where they are.

I think this is highly unlikely. Nature doesn't build us that way. Nature allows us to restore vitamin D (which is actually a hormone) after periods of low light by exposure to sunlight. There are some Dr's and researchers that believe you can't get any useful vitamin D from supplements or food.

My kids (I have 4 under the age of 5) get regular short intervals of sun exposure without sun block. We put block on them when they might spend enough time to get burned.

Open Original Shared Link

Dr. Mercola's site has daily info on vitamin D and sunlight. Above is one quick search.

[Ursa Major]

I think this is highly unlikely. Nature doesn't build us that way. Nature allows us to restore vitamin D (which is actually a hormone) after periods of low light by exposure to sunlight. There are some Dr's and researchers that believe you can't get any useful vitamin D from supplements or food.

My kids (I have 4 under the age of 5) get regular short intervals of sun exposure without sun block. We put block on them when they might spend enough time to get burned.

Open Original Shared Link

Dr. Mercola's site has daily info on vitamin D and sunlight. Above is one quick search.

But Dr. Mercola also says that you can't make up for not getting enough sun in the winter by just being out in the sun in the summer and should take cod liver oil in the winter to make up for it!

And in order to get enough vitamin D in the summer, according to him again, you need to get full body sunlight (meaning no clothes) for twenty minutes a day during the hottest time of the day to get enough vitamin D (not right away, of course, as you need to get used to the sun by starting with just a few minutes at first, or you will get burned).

And he has tested that. The reason for that is, that your body stops making vitamin D after about 20 minutes. You can't 'catch up' on vitamin D once you are deficient, because your body will not make more than you need on any given day.

The best way to get your levels up to where they should be is by taking cod liver oil. The Carlson brand is lemon flavoured (natural flavour) and doesn't taste fishy. Even a little kid might take it (or you could mix it into something). AFTER your levels have come up to where they should be, being out in the sun every day will hopefully keep it there. But then you should supplement again during the winter.

Vitamin D2 (which is what is in most supplements, and is what doctors prescribe) is actually bad for you and causes problems. Vitamin D3 is what our bodies need.

Stacie, your daughter's vitamin D is so low that you need to do something right away. She probably already has rickets (soft bones).

Dr. Mercola recommends one teaspoonful of cod liver oil for every 50 pounds of body weight a day during the winter. I think one teaspoonful a day for your daughter until she gets to the optimal level (45-50 ng/ml) would be a good idea.

Make sure she gets tested periodically, as you don't want her vitamin D level to get much above that. Once her levels are in the optimal range sunshine and much lower doses should be fine until the fall.

[tarnalberry]

There are some researchers who are suggesting supplementing with very high doses of vit D to simulate what the sun provides. The RDA for vit D is 200IU for everyone under 50 (which plenty of researchers think is too low). 30 minutes of sunlight is about 20,000IU. The skin in meant to produce vit D for storage through the winter, where - in latitudes above 42 (north of California or Nebraska or Pennsylvania or Portugal or Rome or Greece or Beijing) - there is four months (or more) of the year that there's not enough UV getting through the atmosphere (due to the tilt of the earth) to produce vit D.

[Lizz7711]

I second this! This is what I was going to recommend--carlson's cod liver oil, or D3 drops.

The best way to get your levels up to where they should be is by taking cod liver oil. The Carlson brand is lemon flavoured (natural flavour) and doesn't taste fishy. Even a little kid might take it (or you could mix it into something). AFTER your levels have come up to where they should be, being out in the sun every day will hopefully keep it there. But then you should supplement again during the winter.

Vitamin D2 (which is what is in most supplements, and is what doctors prescribe) is actually bad for you and causes problems. Vitamin D3 is what our bodies need.

Dr. Mercola recommends one teaspoonful of cod liver oil for every 50 pounds of body weight a day during the winter. I think one teaspoonful a day for your daughter until she gets to the optimal level (45-50 ng/ml) would be a good idea.

Make sure she gets tested periodically, as you don't want her vitamin D level to get much above that. Once her levels are in the optimal range sunshine and much lower doses should be fine until the fall.

[Worriedtodeath]

Hate to bust everyone's sunshine theory but as my husband told me (I subscribe to that camp as well) that she has been outside 4-5 days a week for 2-4 hours since March for baseball and practice. Saturdays those hours are between 10-2:00 and the weekdays are from 4:-8:00. We are in the deep south so sunshine is abundant and clothes only what's decent for much of that time. Burn time around here is from 11:00- 5:00 easy. That's in addition to the outside time at home. So I have to agree that being in the sunshine isn't going to bring the levels back into normal anytime soon. Despite all that time outside, she's not very brown either. We are all a nice brown but she's not.

I'll look for vitamin d3 drops. ANy thoughts on where I could get them? I am going to do a mutlivitamin, I just haven't decided on which brand. I'm going to do a vitamin for all 3 kids and do an extra caclium for the oldest since he is hitting those teen years and growing like a weed. we don't do milk, cheese and he barely touches a vegetable so his calcium consumption has got to be off. The other two eat all sorts of veggies and drink almond milk so I am not worried about their calcium levels.

Doesn't Cod liver oil cause Diaherra??? ISn't that the stuff you take when trying to induce labor?

Stacie

[Jestgar]

Hate to bust everyone's sunshine theory but as my husband told me (I subscribe to that camp as well) that she has been outside 4-5 days a week for 2-4 hours since March for baseball and practice.

With exposed skin? No sunscreen? If this is the case, you might want to investigate this further.

[tarnalberry]

With exposed skin? No sunscreen? If this is the case, you might want to investigate this further.

and not in the shade? (which cuts available UV by more than 60%) (it's the UVA that's necessary for vit D production)

and "exposed skin" doesn't mean "face and hands" if you're deficient. it pretty much means as little clothing as possible - short sleeves and shorts, definitely, without any sunscreen applied (which would block the UVA), for at least 15 minutes. (I'd think that if she was out that much without any sunscreen, she'd have burned the first few weeks.)

if all that is true and she's still vit D deficient, it's *DEFINITELY* something to talk to her doc about. not being able to produce vit D is a serious issue.

[Lizz7711]

I think it's Douglas Labs that makes D3 drops, but not for sure on that...i'm sure there are other companies.

Cod liver oil, lemon flavored by Carlson's, is good for SO many body systems as it contains essential fatty acids DHA and EPA that we get if we eat fish 3-4 times a week, but if not, it's good to take this stuff. It's good for the brain , heart, skin, everything. My daughter doesn't mind drinking it off the spoon. I personally don't like the texture of drinking oil so can't do that...but the taste is fine. I mix it in smoothies, or if you do dairy you could put it in yogurt if she won't drink it. My guess is a 2 year old would have no problem drinking it off a spoon as it tastes good. I'd recommend the cod liver oil even if you get vit. D3 drops (you could get thier fish oil instead which deosn't have the extra D). It's important to get a high quality product since you want to make sure the fish used is clean of toxins. I recommend either CArlson's or NOrdic Naturals.

by the way, if your child was using sunscreen , that would inhibit the vitamin D being synthesized, so you need to have a good 1/2 hour exposure with no sunscreen. But I agree that even that isn't enough if you are deficient. you also want to have enough calcium and magnesium...alot of people neglect magnesium and it's vital so while searching for a multi--look for one with magnesium. I give my daughter a powdered mag. supplement called "Calm" in addition to her multi vitamin and calcium supplement--for those I use the gummy bears that Trader Joes' sells--it's gluten, dairy, other allergen free.

Hate to bust everyone's sunshine theory but as my husband told me (I subscribe to that camp as well) that she has been outside 4-5 days a week for 2-4 hours since March for baseball and practice. Saturdays those hours are between 10-2:00 and the weekdays are from 4:-8:00. We are in the deep south so sunshine is abundant and clothes only what's decent for much of that time. Burn time around here is from 11:00- 5:00 easy. That's in addition to the outside time at home. So I have to agree that being in the sunshine isn't going to bring the levels back into normal anytime soon. Despite all that time outside, she's not very brown either. We are all a nice brown but she's not.

I'll look for vitamin d3 drops. ANy thoughts on where I could get them? I am going to do a mutlivitamin, I just haven't decided on which brand. I'm going to do a vitamin for all 3 kids and do an extra caclium for the oldest since he is hitting those teen years and growing like a weed. we don't do milk, cheese and he barely touches a vegetable so his calcium consumption has got to be off. The other two eat all sorts of veggies and drink almond milk so I am not worried about their calcium levels.

Doesn't Cod liver oil cause Diaherra??? ISn't that the stuff you take when trying to induce labor?

Stacie

[Ursa Major]

Doesn't Cod liver oil cause Diaherra??? ISn't that the stuff you take when trying to induce labor?

No, cod liver oil will not cause diarrhea, I have been taking it daily for three years now, and so has my husband, and neither one of us gets diarrhea from it.

And it is castor oil that is used to induce labour and to relieve constipation (hence it could also cause diarrhea if you take it without being constipated), not cod liver oil.

[Lizz7711]

I think it's Douglas Labs that makes D3 drops, but not for sure on that...i'm sure there are other companies.

Cod liver oil, lemon flavored by Carlson's, is good for SO many body systems as it contains essential fatty acids DHA and EPA that we get if we eat fish 3-4 times a week, but if not, it's good to take this stuff. It's good for the brain , heart, skin, everything. My daughter doesn't mind drinking it off the spoon. I personally don't like the texture of drinking oil so can't do that...but the taste is fine. I mix it in smoothies, or if you do dairy you could put it in yogurt if she won't drink it. My guess is a 2 year old would have no problem drinking it off a spoon as it tastes good. I'd recommend the cod liver oil even if you get vit. D3 drops (you could get thier fish oil instead which deosn't have the extra D). It's important to get a high quality product since you want to make sure the fish used is clean of toxins. I recommend either CArlson's or NOrdic Naturals.

by the way, if your child was using sunscreen , that would inhibit the vitamin D being synthesized, so you need to have a good 1/2 hour exposure with no sunscreen. But I agree that even that isn't enough if you are deficient. you also want to have enough calcium and magnesium...alot of people neglect magnesium and it's vital so while searching for a multi--look for one with magnesium. I give my daughter a powdered mag. supplement called "Calm" in addition to her multi vitamin and calcium supplement--for those I use the gummy bears that Trader Joes' sells--it's gluten, dairy, other allergen free.

Hate to bust everyone's sunshine theory but as my husband told me (I subscribe to that camp as well) that she has been outside 4-5 days a week for 2-4 hours since March for baseball and practice. Saturdays those hours are between 10-2:00 and the weekdays are from 4:-8:00. We are in the deep south so sunshine is abundant and clothes only what's decent for much of that time. Burn time around here is from 11:00- 5:00 easy. That's in addition to the outside time at home. So I have to agree that being in the sunshine isn't going to bring the levels back into normal anytime soon. Despite all that time outside, she's not very brown either. We are all a nice brown but she's not.

I'll look for vitamin d3 drops. ANy thoughts on where I could get them? I am going to do a mutlivitamin, I just haven't decided on which brand. I'm going to do a vitamin for all 3 kids and do an extra caclium for the oldest since he is hitting those teen years and growing like a weed. we don't do milk, cheese and he barely touches a vegetable so his calcium consumption has got to be off. The other two eat all sorts of veggies and drink almond milk so I am not worried about their calcium levels.

Doesn't Cod liver oil cause Diaherra??? ISn't that the stuff you take when trying to induce labor?

Stacie

[tarnalberry]

Despite all that time outside, she's not very brown either. We are all a nice brown but she's not.

If she's not using sunscreen, but is out that long, and is not tanning, I'd talk to a doctor (dermatologist) about that. There be a more serious issue if she can't produce more melanin. That not only makes our skin darker, but protects us from damage from the sun and the DNA effects it can have. Has this always been the case?

[Ursa Major]

If she's not using sunscreen, but is out that long, and is not tanning, I'd talk to a doctor (dermatologist) about that. There be a more serious issue if she can't produce more melanin. That not only makes our skin darker, but protects us from damage from the sun and the DNA effects it can have. Has this always been the case?

Some people are fair skinned and don't really tan. I don't get brown, either, just a nice shade of beige (tan). People laugh at me when I say I have a nice tan. It is for me, but most people get much darker.

Maybe she is just fair. What is her hair colour? I was strawberry blond as a child, and it has darkened to auburn. But my skin hasn't changed, I stay fairly light and get freckles. My two brothers with reddish hair are the same as me. My sister and one brother, who have brown hair, don't really tan, either. While my two blond brothers and the remaining brown-haired one get dark brown!

I have five children. Some tan nicely, and some don't. There is nothing wrong with any of them. One of my grandsons and one granddaughter are dark (their father is 1/4 native) and tan amazingly. But their siblings are fair and don't tan much, just like their mother.

So, I wouldn't worry about that too much. Also, I just checked your original post, she is only two years old. Most children that young don't get very tanned yet.

[tarnalberry]

Some people are fair skinned and don't really tan. I don't get brown, either, just a nice shade of beige (tan). People laugh at me when I say I have a nice tan. It is for me, but most people get much darker.

Maybe she is just fair. What is her hair colour? I was strawberry blond as a child, and it has darkened to auburn. But my skin hasn't changed, I stay fairly light and get freckles. My two brothers with reddish hair are the same as me. My sister and one brother, who have brown hair, don't really tan, either. While my two blond brothers and the remaining brown-haired one get dark brown!

I have five children. Some tan nicely, and some don't. There is nothing wrong with any of them. One of my grandsons and one granddaughter are dark (their father is 1/4 native) and tan amazingly. But their siblings are fair and don't tan much, just like their mother.

So, I wouldn't worry about that too much. Also, I just checked your original post, she is only two years old. Most children that young don't get very tanned yet.

no tanning and no burning w/ fair skin is a pretty atypical reaction. sure - not tanning (I don't get very tan myself; definitely on the fair side; it's the norther european in me) - but that *and* not burning without sunscreen indicates an non-typical skin reaction. of course, I know next to nothing about kids, so I'll take your experience over mine on the under-13 set.

[Worriedtodeath]

Forgive if it is disjointed but I'm trying to answer quickly and all at once LOL!

Thanks about the cod liver oil. I'll get some of that (not castor oil ) We probably should all take some.

We never use sunscreen but start early in the year with few mintues here few minutes there and then bulid up to full body exposure and then lengthen the time. We rarely burn and when we do it is only if we are out the entire day (sunup to sundown) and didn't get any break form sun. We burn worse and more often with sunscreen so I stopped using it years ago.

Being in the sun - shorts/short sleeve or no sleeve shirts. It was in the shade for a lot of that time. I didn't think about that. But it was shade of pine tree that wasn't all that shady but not open sun.

She seems to have my coloring and skin type as do the boys. We are fair(maybe more very pale olive instead of true fair), blondes hazel brown eyes and we don't get dark dark but we typically don't burn other than across the nose or tops of shoulders. And even then it is slight pink that turns brown. she does barely have tan lines. They are faint but they are there. So there is some turning brown just not noticeable. (Unlike the rest of us) I'm pretty sure she has never burned before. And I don't remember if she was darker as a baby last year. Though I do think she had better tan lines. But the season for all day swim wear weather has just truly kicked in. We've been in shorts forever but swimwear was a tad chilly.

So I'll keep an eye on it the rest of the summer and see if she darkens up any.

I went looking for vitamins today and vitamin d but looks like local resources are not available.

Thanks

Stacie

[pele]

Hi Ursa M,

I read your recommendation of Carlson's Cod Liver Oil on another thread and went to buy some, but didn't because it has only a few hundred units of Vit D per dose. I bought Carlson's Vit D supplement, 2000 units, instead.

Is the Vit D in cod liver oil better than the supplements? Is there a difference? I have had my Vit D level checked 3 times and it has not changed despite chewing on Vit D capsules daily ( I can't stand the gel caps and spit them out after they break apart), last time I checked it was still hovering around 30...

Pele