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When it comes to vitamin D, children may need more than we thought.

Long recognized as a crucial factor in building and maintaining strong bones, vitamin D is available from only a few food sources but can actually be synthesized within the body. It is often referred to as the sunshine vitamin because exposure to the sun triggers its manufacture in the skin.

In the early 1900s widespread vitamin D deficiency left millions of children vulnerable to rickets, a devastating bone-softening disease. When the US government made vitamin D fortification of milk mandatory in the early 1930s the number of rickets cases dropped dramatically and for decades it was believed that milk fortification alone was sufficient to give children optimum blood levels of the vitamin.

However recent research on Vitamin D has shown that protecting bones is only one of its many crucial functions, which are now known to include autoimmune and anti-inflammatory capabilities. It is now accepted that insufficient levels of the vitamin can have a lifelong effect on cardio-vascular health, brain function, and susceptibility to a host of diseases including asthma, multiple sclerosis, and cancer . As new information raises the consciousness of the vitamin's importance, questions about whether American children are getting enough of the vitamin are coming to the fore.

The Food and Nutrition Board at the Institute of Medicine of The National Academies, responsible for setting Recommended Dietary Allowances of various nutrients, set an RDA of 200 mgs a day for children and adolescents. In 2003 the American Association of Pediatrics endorsed the 200 mg RDA for children, starting in the first two months of life.

However in 2008 AAP announced a new recommendation for the vitamin, literally doubling the existing RDA and recommending that children's vitamin D supplementation begin in the first two days after birth.

Citing new and ongoing research that shows deficiency of the vitamin as important to a variety of health issues throughout life, the AAP report said supplementation is particularly important for infants who are breastfed because deficiency of the vitamin in mothers would necessarily be passed on to their children. Studies indicate that as many as 12% of otherwise healthy infants and children are clinically deficient in vitamin D, while breastfed infants are up to 10 times more likely to be deficient than infants who are fed formula.

In addition to recommending supplementation for breastfed infants, the AAP also said daily supplements of 400 IU per day are indicated for all non-breastfed infants, older children, and adolescents who consume less than one quart of vitamin D fortified milk daily. Even greater supplementation may be indicated for children with increased risk of deficiency, a group that includes children taking certain medications and children who have certain diseases including epilepsy, celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease.

New studies are showing that building strong bones is just one of many ways in which vitamin D is crucial to lifelong health - vitamin D benefits hearts, brain function, immunity, and more. For more information visit Vitamin D Benefits.

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