Study after study indicates the very important role vitamin D provides in disease and health.  Vitamin D (which often develops insidiously in children) should be on every parent’s and pediatrician’s radar.  Many physicians agree.

Physicians from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center state that vitamin D deficiency can be a problem year round, but because sun exposure is critical for vitamin D synthesis and production, the winter months further exacerbate what is a perennial problem.  



Level at or below 20 nanograms per milliliter are considered suboptimal.  Levels below 15 constitute deficiency and should be treated with supplements.

Hopkins expert say pediatricians should screen all children for risk factors and order blood tests for those found to be at high risk.  Children at risk for vitamin D deficiency include:

• Those with vitamin D – poor diets
• Breast-fed infants because breast milk contains minimal vitamin D
• Obese children

Those with darker skin because darker skin synthesizes less vitamin D from sun exposure than lighter skin

Those with certain medical conditions, including cystic fibrosis, type 1 and type 2 diabetes and certain gastrointestinal disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease, which can interfere with food absorption.

Several large-scale studies have found that vitamin D deficiency is widespread – one in 10 U.S. children are estimated to be deficient – and that 60 percent of children may have suboptimal levels of vitamin D

Deficiency in this vitamin in children can cause skeletal deformities, brittle bones, frequent fractures and lead to premature osteoporosis in later life.  However, emerging evidence suggest that vitamin D is involved in far more than bone health.  Recent studies have found a link between low vitamin D levels and some cancers, heart disease, suppressed immunity and even premature death. Studies do not show that vitamin D deficiency can cause cancer or heart disease, experts caution, however, that vitamin D may be a powerful player in the genesis of such disorders.

Prolonged and untreated vitamin D deficiency can affect multiple organs and functions, including bone growth and density, metabolism, heart and immunity, but it rarely causes overt symptoms and often goes unnoticed.

Experts say that much of our life-long health is pre-programmed in childhood, and many adult disease are rooted in exposures, lifestyle and diet during the first decade of life, and vitamin D, or lack of it, is a classic example.

Vitamin D is not only the sunshine vitamin, but in climates that don’t get a lot of sun during the winter months, there are foods rich in this vitamin.  Fish (sardines, salmon, tuna), egg yolks, vitamin D-fortified milk, vitamin D-fortified orange juice, cereals, yogurt and cheese.