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Review
. 2019 Jan 8;6(1):7.
doi: 10.3390/children6010007.

Factors Affecting Vitamin D Status in Infants

Charles Fink  1   2 , Rachel L Peters  3 , Jennifer J Koplin  4   5 , Justin Brown  6   7 , Katrina J Allen  8   9   10   11
Affiliations
Review

Factors Affecting Vitamin D Status in Infants

Charles Fink et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

Vitamin D is critical to children's skeletal development and health. Despite this, the factors which determine vitamin D concentrations during infancy remain incompletely understood. This article reviews the literature assessing the factors which can affect vitamin D status in infancy, including antenatal and postnatal vitamin D supplementation. Observational data supports that dietary intake of vitamin D, UV exposure, and geographic factors contribute significantly to infants' vitamin D status, but the relationship is unclear regarding genetic variation, ethnicity, and maternal vitamin D status. Randomised controlled trials have compared higher versus lower doses of infant vitamin D supplementation, but no studies have compared infant vitamin D supplementation to placebo and eliminated external sources of vitamin D to fully quantify its effect on vitamin D status. Knowledge gaps remain regarding the factors associated with optimal vitamin D concentrations in infants-including key factors such as ethnicity and genetic variation-and further studies are needed.

Keywords: UV exposure; breastfeeding; ethnicity; infant formula; infants; latitude; maternal supplementation; socioeconomic status; vitamin D; vitamin D supplementation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) measurements in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing 400 IU/day vitamin D supplementation in 1–12-month-old infants. These measurements are the mean serum 25(OH)D at each timepoint in each experimental group which received 400 IU of vitamin D supplementation in these studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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