Question: I have heard that you are supposed to give your baby Vitamin D supplements if they are breastfeeding. I am not sure how I feel about this, but I am also concerned about rickets. I also follow a vegan diet. What is your opinion on giving vitamin supplements to exclusively breastfed babies?
I have to say that I rarely go against the advice of my pediatrician. I think she’s fantastic and I trust her. However, I am still the parent, and I still have the right to decide what is best for my child. Supplementing our babies with vitamins is something that we have chosen not to do.
Nature is incredibly well designed. Think about your pregnancy. Not once did you have to get up and explain to your uterus that it was time to stretch to make room for the baby’s growth. Neither did you set out with a plan for your baby’s development. . .your body just did all the work for you. I personally believe that breast milk is a nutritionally sufficient food for the first year of life. In normal, healthy infants with normal healthy mothers with good diets, breastfeeding takes care of the nutritional needs of your baby–completely.
I have a hard time believing that somehow, nature got confused and failed to include a nutritional supplement that your infant needed. If it’s missing from breast milk, I suspect it is because a young infant doesn’t need it. Not only that, but among mothers with good diets, rickets is just about unheard of for breastfed infants. (It is also unheard of in formula fed infants because formula is fortified with Vitamin D.) None of my children have been given vitamin supplements until they were on solid foods.
However, every parent needs to make a decision that they feel comfortable with. Consequently, I’ve done my research and have a few sources to share with you while you’re deciding what to do in your situation.
The AAP
The AAP recommends that all breastfed infants from the age of two months on, should get vitamin D drops. The infant can stop taking vitamin D drops once he/she is over twelve months of age and is drinking at least a pint of milk a day. (Note: Infants that are younger than twelve months should be given formula. . .not cow’s milk.) The AAP does point out that sunlight exposure could be enough to help your infant make his own vitamin D. However, sunlight exposure is hard to measure.
Ask Dr. Sears
Dr. Sears says that there is no need to give an infant vitamin supplements if the infant was full term and healthy and the mother is healthy. He points out that there used to be concern about breastfed babies not getting enough iron or Vitamin D. However, new research no longer indicates the use of supplements for breastfed infants. Unfortunately, there was no link to the new research on his site.
La Leche League
LLL does not take a stance one way or the other but rather points out that infants who do not get enough sunlight are at risk for Vitamin D deficiency. They also have a very informative FAQ that goes over some of the more common risk factors associated with Vitamin D deficiency.
Common Risk Factors
Your baby gets his first supply of Vitamin D from you. Therefore, if you are deficient in Vitamin D while pregnant, your baby is at a greater risk to develop a deficiency. Obviously, your diet while breastfeeding can also affect your baby’s Vitamin D levels. However, rickets is generally associated with people who are severely malnourished. Even still, if your diet is questionable, it might be better to give your child the supplements. Mothers who are on vegan or vegetarian diets are encouraged to take B12 supplements, however, they are not especially encouraged to give their baby vitamin D supplements unless they have some of the other risk factors.
Also, the darker your baby’s skin, the more likely that he needs vitamin supplements. This is because vitamin D is more easily absorbed through lighter skin. Consequently, most sources seem to strongly encourage vitamin D supplements for darker skinned families. Likewise, vitamin D supplements are strongly encouraged where there is very little sunlight or where religious or cultural practices cause the skin to be covered up virtually all the time.
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