Extra Vitamin D intake during pregnancy can make your kid's bone stronger even at age 7, according to a study on Wednesday.
Vitamin
D, also known as the sunshine vitamin, helps regulate the amount of calcium and
phosphate in the body -- minerals that are essential for bones, teeth, and
muscle health.
Researchers from
the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton (UHS) in the
UK showed that an increase in women’s intake of vitamin D supplements during
pregnancy can boost bone mineral density in the children’s mid-childhood.
Increased maternal
vitamin D supplements spiked calcium and other minerals in the kids’ bones.
This made their bones stronger and less likely to break.
Dr Rebecca Moon, NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Child Health at the University of Southampton said that the “early intervention represents an important public health strategy”.
In the paper, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, she
added that the strategy can boost “children’s bones and reduce the risk of
conditions like osteoporosis and fractures in later life”.
For the study, the
team examined more than 1,000 pregnant women. Then they divided the women into
those one taking an extra 1,000 International Units per day of vitamin D, and
the other taking a placebo daily. Further, they followed 454 children aged six
to seven to see the effects on bone health continued into mid-childhood.
The beneficial
effect on children’s bones was similar at ages four and six to seven.
Previously, the
Southampton researchers demonstrated that maternal vitamin D supplementation substantially
reduced the chances of babies up to a year old suffering from atopic eczema.
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