Vitamin D activity of breast milk in women randomly assigned to vitamin D3 supplementation during pregnancy.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in the context of pregnancy and breastfeeding: safety notes.

The researchers examined the effect of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy on breast-milk VDA in the first 2 mo of lactation.

A linear mixed model was used to compare breast-milk VDA between the 3 study groups.

Why It Was Studied

Human milk is typically low in vitamin D activity (VDA).

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are young adults and adults, both men and women.

Breast-milk samples were obtained from women who were enrolled in a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy.

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] was measured at enrollment, at 36 wk of gestation, and in cord blood at birth.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

Study participants who were breastfeeding were invited to provide breast-milk samples for VDA measurement [concentration of vitamin D2, vitamin D3, 25(OH)D2, and 25(OH)D3] at 2 wk and 2 mo postpartum.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including 25-Hydroxyvitamin D 2, Calcifediol, Cholecalciferol, Dietary Supplements, Ergocalciferols, Fetal Blood and Lactation.

Author keywords: breast milk, infant feeding, pregnancy and supplementation.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in people with pregnancy and breastfeeding: safety notes.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2016 (The American journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, Pregnancy and breastfeeding: safety notes research.