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. 2020 Aug;105(8):791-793.
doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2018-316339. Epub 2019 Feb 25.

Vitamin D supplementation: are multivitamins sufficient?

Rebecca J Moon  1   2 , Elizabeth M Curtis  1 , Cyrus Cooper  1   3   4 , Justin H Davies  2 , Nicholas C Harvey  1   3
Affiliations

Vitamin D supplementation: are multivitamins sufficient?

Rebecca J Moon et al. Arch Dis Child. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Public Health England advises 400 IU/day vitamin D supplementation for children over 1 year. Commercially available children's multivitamin and vitamin D supplements were surveyed to determine the vitamin D content.

Methods: Multivitamins and vitamin D supplements marketed at children <12 years and sold by nine UK supermarkets and health supplement retailers were surveyed. Vitamin D content was determined from manufacturer's websites and product packaging.

Results: 67 multivitamins were surveyed, containing 0-800 IU/day vitamin D. Only 25%-36%, depending on the child's age, provided ≥400 IU/day vitamin D. Supplements containing only vitamin D or labelled as for 'healthy bones' typically had higher vitamin D content (57%-67% contained ≥400 IU/day).

Conclusions: Few multivitamin products supply the recommended 400 IU/day vitamin D. Clinicians need to be aware of this when recommending vitamin D supplementation and advise parents/carers to choose a product that contains ≥400 IU/day vitamin D.

Keywords: Vitamin D; dietary supplementation; multivitamin; rickets.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: RJM has nothing to report. EMC reports honoraria or travel support from Eli Lilly, Pfizer and UCB, outside of the submitted work. CC reports personal fees from ABBH, Amgen, Eli Lilly, GSK, Medtronic, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Servier and Takeda, outside the submitted work. NCH reports personal fees, consultancy, lecture fees and honoraria from Alliance for Better Bone Health, AMGEN, MSD, Eli Lilly, Servier, Shire, Consilient Healthcare and Internis Pharma, outside the submitted work. JHD has received travel bursaries received from Novo Nordisk, Pfizer and Sandoz, outside the submitted work.

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