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You know how important the place of vitamin D in human life is. We also know that when it comes to the child, he becomes more sensitive in this regard. Because vitamin D deficiency in children negatively affects bone development and causes problems such as rickets.
But before you encounter such problems, there are things you can do to prevent your child from having a vitamin D deficiency! In this article, “How to eliminate vitamin D deficiency in children?” We talked about 4 effective methods that will answer the question.
1- Make sure he takes vitamin D supplements every day!
You know, when your baby is born, it uses up the vitamin D that it stores in the placenta for a while. When that wears off, you become your baby’s source of vitamin D, through breast milk. However, in cases such as not paying attention to your nutrition, insufficient nutrition or lack of breast milk, even your newborn baby needs to take supplements from outside.
- 0-12 months babies 400 IU,
- Children aged 1-18 need 600 IU of vitamin D.
Vitamin D deficiency is very common when the child grows up and stops feeding with breast milk. Because we will talk about in more detail in the following sections;
- Insufficient sunlight in winter
- Not being able to take your child out often due to cold weather,
- The child’s coming to school age and therefore staying indoors longer,
- Situations such as having more troublesome eating habits will prevent your child from storing vitamin D. Even if you try to put these things in order, you may not be able to meet your child’s vitamin D needs completely. In these cases, your child needs a vitamin D supplement. You can use a supplement with the recommendation of your doctor to meet this need of your little pup.
2- Let your child benefit from the sun’s rays!
The most concentrated source of vitamin D is, of course, sunlight. Getting enough of these rays during the day is one of the best ways to fight vitamin D deficiency. However, at what time and for how long you should take your child to the sun, you should have such information.
In order for your child to be able to synthesize vitamin D in the sun’s rays, he must be outside during the hours when UV B rays are present. These hours are between 12:00-16:00. It’s okay to be outside at these times in the spring and winter, but sunburns can occur in the summer. But there is no need for more, 20-30 minutes spent under the sun is enough to store vitamin D.
Let me also point out; Protecting your child with a hat, allowing him to benefit from the sun through the glasses, and applying intense sunscreen to his skin may prevent the synthesis of vitamin D.
Also, don’t shower your child immediately after spending time outside in the sun, let the vitamin D absorb into his skin for a while.
3- Take care to feed it with oily fish!
Fish species such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines are rich in vitamin D. You can help your child store vitamin D by feeding these fishes frequently. In particular, salmon contains 447 IU of vitamin D in 85 grams. Therefore, you can feed your child salmon 2-3 times a week. Consuming fish frequently is also beneficial in terms of Omega 3 storage.
4- Enrich your diet!
It is very important to include fish in the diet, but the work does not end there. A balanced diet for your child is also important in preventing vitamin D deficiency. For this reason, you can add foods containing vitamin D to your nutrition plan and ensure that you consume them regularly.
| Animal foods containing vitamin D (D3) | Plant foods containing vitamin D (D2) | Vitamin D fortified foods |
|---|---|---|
| oily fish | Parsley | whole grains |
| Egg yolk | Mushroom | Milk and milk products |
| Prawns | rosehip | breakfast cereals |
| beef liver | Grapes | Margarine |
| Strawberry | Soy drinks | |
| Orange | ||
| Melon |
However, there is something we should warn about at this point. Neither sunbathing alone nor regulating nutrition alone is sufficient to store vitamin D. These two must be done together. Because sun rays help to release vitamin D in foods.
In other words, you need to pay attention to your child’s nutrition and ensure that he or she benefits from the sun sufficiently. Because nutrition alone meets 20% of the daily vitamin D need at most.
