Summary of use during breastfeeding Nursing mothers who take vitamin D supplements in this range should give their babies a daily vitamin D supplement of at least 400 IU (10 mcg) to meet pediatric nutritional guidelines. There were a similar number of women in both treatment groups who met the IOM definition of vitamin D deficiency (25 (OH), D. Vitamin D deficiency is almost universal among infants fed only with breast milk and who do not receive oral vitamin D supplements. Of 334 mother-child couples in the 400 IU and 6400 IU groups at the time of enrollment, 216 (64.7%) were still breastfeeding at the first visit; 148 (44.3%) continued to fully breastfeed up to 4 months and 95 (28.4%) Until 7 months.
The concentration of vitamin D in breast milk of women who take 400 IU of vitamin D a day is relatively low, causing vitamin D deficiency in infants. The inherent defect is not in the design of breast milk, but in the dietary recommendation for vitamin D for the nursing mother. Consequently, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that vitamin D supplements be given during breastfeeding a few days after birth. Compared to 25 (OH), D infants in the 400 IU group who received the supplement, infants in the 6400 IU group whose mothers only received the supplement showed no difference.
It has long been known that breast milk provides insufficient amounts of vitamin D to nutritionally keep infants fed only breast milk. With adequate vitamin D intake, a nursing mother can fully transfer the vitamin D needed to maintain optimal vitamin D nutrition in the infant from her blood to her milk, without the need for additional supplements for the baby. This rate continued to decline in the following months, and only 28.4% at 7 months were still fully breastfeeding (with the addition of complementary foods at 6 months). The current recommendation to administer 400 IU a day to these people does little to maintain blood levels of the original vitamin D compound, the form that passes from maternal circulation to breast milk; thus, a minimum amount of vitamin D is transferred to breast milk.
The medical community has accepted the fact that low levels of vitamin D are an inherent defect in breast milk, which is why vitamin D supplementation has been recommended to infants from the first days after birth. According to the DSMC, there were no cases of adverse effects attributable to vitamin D supplementation.
