Vitamins for Babies

Just like adults, even the youngest children naturally need a supply of vitamins. They receive most of them through breast milk, but some we must administer 'from the outside'. Which ones and how much? Let's shed some light on this today. Proper supplementation is most important for infants who do not have the opportunity to obtain essential vitamins from food other than breast milk and whose bodies are not yet able to produce micronutrients themselves. Breast milk is a very important and the most nutritious food a mother can offer her baby. Therefore, it is very important to support breastfeeding, even if it hasn't always been the case. However, there are substances that occur in breast milk in small amounts or not at all, and the baby is dependent on their supply 'from the outside'.

We must not forget about vitamin D in children. In the Czech Republic, it has been preventively administered to all babies for several years, primarily as a prevention of the disease called rickets (Latin: rachitis). This vitamin is actually a hormone and is important for many other reasons such as proper bone metabolism, immune system function, protection against heart and oncological diseases, or its influence on the transcription of certain genes. Recently, numerous pieces of information have appeared all around us about the positive effects of vitamin D (which it certainly has!) and the necessity of supplementing it with dietary supplements from various advertisements. Always read the composition of the given dietary supplement, and for babies, always consult a pediatrician about the dosage of the specific preparation. The most important source of vitamin D is sunlight and, potentially, dietary sources. Above all, we should promote a healthy lifestyle that ensures sufficient natural sources of vitamin D (eating fish at least twice a week, as well as dairy products, poultry, breast milk, or fortified infant formulas, etc.). Supplementation should only come into play when we are truly unable to ensure sufficient natural intake of vitamin D. However, few of us can manage this in today's world, and most of us lack it to a greater or lesser extent. And as mentioned above, the source from breast milk alone is not enough for babies, so always prefer to give a drop of vitamin D to newborns or infants.

For breastfed children and those fed with formula milk from the second week of life throughout the entire 1st year, we administer vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) in a dose of 400–500 IU daily, which usually corresponds to one drop of the preparation.

 

The tolerable upper limit for daily vitamin D intake in a healthy infant is considered to be 1,000 IU. This also includes vitamin D intake from infant formula, complementary foods (be careful about enriched complementary foods, e.g., porridge with vitamin D), or food supplements!

Often, on supplements, you will find different units that you need to convert:
Vitamin D3 in sources: 1 μg = 40 IU (e.g., 10 μg / 400 IU of vitamin D3.
 

Sources of vitamin D must also include, for example, cod liver oil. Therefore, if you are administering this food supplement, be sure to check the packaging for the amount of vitamin D it contains and recalculate it to IU according to the formula provided. The total dose must not exceed 1000 IU for a child!

 

Universal supplementation for children older than one year is not necessary according to recommendations, unless the children belong to a risk group – which your pediatrician would inform you about. However, again, who among us ensures enough fish in their diet? If we are unsure, we can have tests done or monitor sources more carefully.
 

However, I personally recommend supplementing vitamin D even in the second year during winter months. In our latitudes, there is little sunlight during this time, and our fish intake is usually very insufficient.

 

Vitamin K plays an important role in the blood clotting cascade (when there is too little of it, blood clots poorly, which can lead, for example, to stomach bleeding or from the umbilical stump, very rarely even to brain bleeding). For newborns who have low vitamin K – and it is also true that breast milk contains very little of it – it is important to administer it externally to provide sufficient prevention of the so-called hemorrhagic disease of the newborn.