Friday, April 23, 2010

Babies bones depend on mums vitamin D

Pregnancy and neonatal care (new born care) is a very important time. One of the hardest things I personally find is the worry that mums (and dads) work up. So many things are based around fear, don't touch, don't eat, don't, don't, don't. Nature (or God) has done a wonderful job looking after babies for millennium so it is going to be ok. I suspect that the biological changes that occur when people worry is more damaging than that occasional glass of wine or walking past smokers.

That all said nutrition while pregnant and breast feeding can have a massive impact on that child. The latest research has looked into babies bones and mum's vitamin D status. They looked at the bone density and bone size of the lower shine bone. The bone size was how "round" the bone was i.e. cross section area.

Surprise, surprise the higher the vitamin D level of mum, the more density the bone was and it had a larger cross sectional area. Thus when baby "bounces" as often they do in the first year or so of life they are less likely to fracture a limb.   

So mum's here is your excuses to pamper yourself when you are carrying child.  To get optimal vitamin D content you need to sit in the sun, exposing your arms and legs, for 10 minutes a day. Clearly not in the harsh midday sun of summer! The 10 minutes should be outside high burn time!Therefore on sunny days you should be siting in the sun, reading or relaxing for a good 10 minutes. Enjoy :)

Nature Reviews Endocrinology 6, 240 (May 2010) | doi:10.1038/nrendo.2010.30

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