Vitamin D supplementation for term breastfed infants to prevent vitamin D deficiency and improve bone health.

What It Covers

This meta-analysis looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

To determine the effect of vitamin D supplementation given to infants, or lactating mothers, on vitamin D deficiency, bone density and growth in healthy term breastfed infants.

The researchers used the GRADE approach to assess the certainty of evidence.

Why It Was Studied

Vitamin D deficiency is common worldwide, contributing to nutritional rickets and osteomalacia which have a major impact on health, growth, and development of infants, children and adolescents.

Vitamin D levels are low in breast milk and exclusively breastfed infants are at risk of vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency.

Who the Included Studies Covered

PubMed indexes the participants as infants, women only.

The researchers used the standard search strategy of Cochrane Neonatal to 29 May 2020 supplemented by searches of clinical trials databases, conference proceedings, and citations.

What Was Measured

Vitamin D levels are low in breast milk and exclusively breastfed infants are at risk of vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency.

Two review authors assessed trial eligibility and risk of bias and independently extracted data.

The subject headings attached to it are 25-Hydroxyvitamin D 2, Bone Density, Bone and Bones, Breast Feeding, Hypercalcemia, Lactation and Mothers.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a meta-analysis of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Its findings take up roughly 23 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2020 (The Cochrane database of systematic reviews), a journal based in England.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.