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Efficacy of daily supplementation of 800 IU vitamin D on vitamin D status at 6 months of age in term healthy Indian infants

Journal of Perinatology volume 38, pages 1566–1572 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objectives

Most authorities recommend daily supplementation of 400 IU vitamin D for all term healthy neonates throughout infancy, however this dose was shown to be inadequate in an earlier study from our institution. We planned to evaluate if supplementation of 800 IU/day in term Indian infants would reduce the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency (VDI) at 6 months of age.

Methods

In a prospective study, we supplemented 800 IU/day of vitamin D in 70 term infants from birth till 6 months of age. Serum 25-hydroxy cholecalciferol [25(OH)D] was measured at birth and 6 months for all infants; and at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age in subsets of 23 infants each. The primary outcome was prevalence of VDI (defined as serum 25(OH)D level < 50 nmol/L) at 6 months of age.

Results

A total of 58 out of 70 (83%) infants were followed up until 6 months of age. The median (nmol/L; IQR) serum 25(OH)D at birth and 6 months of age was 25 (12.5–35) and 92.5 (72.5–137.5), respectively. The prevalence of VDI at birth was 91.3% (63/69), which reduced to 6.9% (4/58) at 6 months of age. However, four infants (6.9%, 95% CI 1.9–16.7) developed vitamin D excess (serum 25(OH)D 250–375 nmol/L) requiring reduction of the dose of supplementation. No infant developed vitamin D toxicity (serum 25(OH)D > 375 nmol/L).

Conclusions

Daily supplementation of 800 IU of vitamin D resulted in vitamin D sufficiency in most term healthy infants at 6 months of age but with potential risk of toxicity.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the contributions by Mrs Shiji Binu, Mr Leslie James and Mr Bijoy Jose for assistance in analysis of blood samples. We thank all the babies enrolled in the study and their families for being part of the study and the nursing staff at AIIMS, New Delhi.

Funding

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) funded the drug; laboratory tests were available as free in-house facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neonatology, Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Mayank Priyadarshi, Mari Jeeva Sankar, Ramesh Agarwal, Vinod Paul & Ashok Deorari

  2. Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Nandita Gupta

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  1. Mayank Priyadarshi
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Correspondence to Ashok Deorari.

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Priyadarshi, M., Sankar, M.J., Gupta, N. et al. Efficacy of daily supplementation of 800 IU vitamin D on vitamin D status at 6 months of age in term healthy Indian infants. J Perinatol 38, 1566–1572 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-018-0216-6

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