We had a baby recently and I was kind of surprised vitamin d drops were never mentioned to us at any time, despite this apparently being recommended both in the US and the UK for breastfed or partially breastfed babies. Does anybody know if there’s a particular reason why?
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I assume because the Sun here is stronger and people take their babies outside more
It’s just not a huge deal either way. When you get to the bottom of the priority list, different countries focus on different things.
There are plenty of precautions Japan take that you don’t see in the US or whatever. Like Japan keeps mothers and babies in the hospital for a week after delivery to carefully monitor both of their health. In the US you get discharged next day (average stay of 48 hours).
I think it’s because breast milk has vitamin d naturally and formula has it supplemented. Plus, Japanese women take their babies out a lot, even in winter and with very young infants.
I had a baby in Japan last year. He didn’t get vitamin d drops but he’s super genki and never had any issues.
DIfferent countries, different priorities.
For both of our daughters, we were instructed to let them take a short sunbath late in the afternoon/early in the morning multiple times per week instead.
I don’t know why it is not widely recommended, but if you search around in Japanese there are plenty of recommendations for it.
If you want to buy some, they sell them in regular drugstores. I had to ask where they were, but they had baby vitamin D drops, so there are people who are getting them.
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my kids didn’t take any vitamin D drops, and they’re fine. Why don’t you ask the hospital about it instead of asking reddit. They’re the experts afterall.
Supplements in general (for adults, too) are not as popular in Japan. There is less of a “market” for it and the idea of giving medicine/supplements to infants just seems unnecessary considering humanity has endured just fine before infant vit. D drops, for example.
The only recommended supplement Japanese pediatricians give is K2 syrup since babies cannot produce Vitamin K on their own to maintain proper clotting of their blood (important, especially for the brain after birth). Considering this, Vit D can be detrimental in those with Vit K deficiency as Vit D essentially instructs calcium to be released in the blood and K instructs it to be bound to bone. If Vit K is too low and Vit D is too high it could result in blood vessel calcification. I highly doubt the supplements for infants would make such an imbalance, but I guess this is one possibility I can think of off the top of my head.
Maybe it depends on the hospital? When I went back for my baby’s 1 month check up at the hospital the pediatrician asked me if we were giving him Vitamin D supplements.
Your options are:
1) add synthetic supplements to your baby to add something that the body doesn’t include naturally. note that people have been breastfeeding babies for at a minimum of thousands and thousands of years and only in the last couple decades decided “maybe we should sell a product to young parents squirrely about baby health!”
2) Go outside with your baby in the out of doors where humans have evolved to live.
We went with option 2 with our kids. They are doing fine.
Vitamin D is not really necessary and it’s also not really a vitamin.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/business/vitamin-d-michael-holick.amp.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2022/08/01/stop-taking-vitamin-d-already/amp/
Be sure to go to the pediatrician for D supplement amounts or at least do a lot of research on dose beforehand because the body stores D in fat to toxic levels (being fat soluble) instead of flushing unnecessary amounts like some other vitamins.
They recommended and sold them at my hospital where we delivered (and did the 1 month check)