There is a study making headlines today that we do not need more than 600IU of vitamin D per day. You probably have seen the headlines. What is ridiculous is that this study only looked at bone health as a marker and ignored the thousands of other metabolic functions that vitamin D plays. Ignore the headlines – take your vitamin D and get it measured properly!

I’ll let the experts reply to this article, but I cut and pasted below a response to this study from the Vitamin D Council.

(Do get your vitamin D levels checked, but when you do make sure you do not take any in supplementation form for at least 2-3 days prior to the blood draw.  Also it is the 25(OH)D level that is important although in some people the ratio of D2:D3 may be important such as some autoimmune diseases)

========

After 13 year of silence, the quasi governmental agency, the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), today recommended that a three-pound premature infant take virtually the same amount of vitamin D as a 300 pound pregnant woman. While that 400 IU/day dose is close to adequate for infants, 600 IU/day in pregnant women will do nothing to help the three childhood epidemics most closely associated with gestational and early childhood vitamin D deficiencies: asthma, auto-immune disorders, and, as recently reported in the largest pediatric journal in the world, autism. Professor Bruce Hollis of the Medical University of South Carolina has shown pregnant and lactating women need at least 5,000 IU/day, not 600.

Read the rest of this entry

I get frustrated and sad when I hear a friends kid is on antibiotics, especially if they are under 2 years of age.   There is little doubt that antibiotics cause stress to the gut mucosa lining.   There is also clear indication that antibiotics may not be useful for the common infant/toddler ear and sinus infections.   The good news is that many pediatricians are cautious to only use antibiotics as a last resort.  There are other options such as dietary changes (often sugar or cow’s dairy can be a culprit), increasing vitamin D levels and using essential oils.   Chinese Medicine has a 2000+ year history of treating common infant/toddler issues that existed a millennium ago as they exist today.   There are many alternatives before one subjects their child to antibiotics. Read the rest of this entry

For many years I’ve strongly recommended to my perinatal patients that they take a high dose DHA fish oil supplement. DHA is docosahexaenoic acid found in fatty fish which is one of the beneficial longer chain fatty acids we get from fish – the other being EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). I’m not sure where I first learned of the benefits of DHA for the brain and using it during pregnancy, but it makes sense given the plethora of research on its neurological benefits.

I had my wife take a high DHA fish oil throughout pregnancy and 2 years of breast feeding. The proof is in the pudding as our child will be attending Harvard next fall. He is only 2 years old.
Read the rest of this entry

From British Journal of Dermatology
Background: Previous reports have suggested that certain probiotics given to mothers and children at risk of atopy halves the incidence of atopic dermatitis (AD) at two years of age.

Objectives: The purpose of this trial was to examine if probiotics given to pregnant women in a non-selected population could prevent atopic sensitization or allergic diseases during the child’s first two years.

Methods: In a randomised, double-blind trial of children from a non-selected maternal population (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00159523), women received probiotic milk or placebo from 36 weeks of gestation to three months postnatally during breastfeeding. The probiotic milk contained Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, Lactobacillus acidophilus La-5 and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis Bb-12. Children with an itchy rash for more than four weeks were consecutively assessed for AD. At two years of age, all children were assessed for atopic sensitisation, AD, asthma and allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (ARC). The intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis was enabled by multiple imputations. Read the rest of this entry

Maternal intake of omega-3 (omega-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) during pregnancy has decreased, possibly contributing to a current increased risk of childhood allergy. Aim: To describe the effects of maternal omega-3 long-chain PUFA supplementation during pregnancy and lactation on the incidence of allergic disease in infancy. Methods: One hundred and forty-five pregnant women, affected by allergy themselves or having a husband or previous child with allergies, were included in a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Daily maternal supplementation with either 1.6 g eicosapentaenoic acid and 1.1 g docosahexaenoic acid or placebo was given from the 25(th) gestational week to average 3-4 months of breastfeeding. Skin prick tests, detection of circulating specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies and clinical examinations of the infants were performed. Results: The period prevalence of food allergy was lower in the omega-3 group (1/52, 2%) compared to the placebo group (10/65, 15%, p < 0.05) as well as the incidence of IgE-associated eczema (omega-3 group: 4/52, 8%; placebo group: 15/63, 24%, p < 0.05). Conclusion: Maternal omega-3 fatty acid supplementation may decrease the risk of food allergy and IgE-associated eczema during the first year of life in infants with a family history of allergic disease.

Read the entire article here.

In a placebo-controlled study of 180 healthy Thai schoolchildren, results indicate that supplementation with fish oil may reduce the frequency and duration of illness, particularly those involving the upper respiratory tract. The children received fish oil (200 mg EPA and 1 g DHA per day) or placebo, five days per week for a period of 6 months. At intervention end, children in the fish oil-supplemented group showed fewer episodes and shorter duration of illness (mainly upper respiratory tract) than the placebo group. Additionally, plasma transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 concentrations were lower in the fish oil group, compared with the placebo group. Thus, the authors of this study conclude, “Very long-chain omega-3 PUFAs reduce illness, mainly infections, in healthy Thai schoolchildren.”

“Fish Oil N-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Selectively Affect Plasma Cytokines and Decrease Illness in Thai Schoolchildren: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Intervention Trial,” Thienprasert A, Calder PC, et al, J Pediatr, 2008 Oct;

Source: http://www.vitasearch.com/get-clp-summary/37818

In a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial involving 1,062 children under the age of 5 years, supplementation with Lactobacillus casei rhamnosus (200 million colony forming units/d) was found to control bacterial, viral (18% reduction), and respiratory infections (17% reduction), a probiotic containing multiple species (12 bacterial strains, including 7 species of Lactobacillus, 3 types of bifidobacteria, 1 type of Streptococcus, 1 type of Enterococcus) significantly reduced gastrointestinal disease (42% decrease in short-term and 44% decrease in long-term), and long-term consumption of L.rhamnosus T cell-1 (10 billion cfu) decreased the incidence of bacterial infection.

Source: Vitasearch.com

Many studies have shown that breastfeeding appears to reduce the chance of children developing asthma. But a newly published study led by a University of Alberta professor has found that eating fast food more than once or twice a week negated the beneficial effects that breastfeeding has in protecting children from the respiratory disease.
The article appears online in the international journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy based in London, England. A number of different findings led the researchers to their conclusion – showing links between fast food and asthma, breastfeeding and asthma, and all three together. Read the rest of this entry

Children who are breastfed are less likely to suffer from
behavioral or mental health issues than those who are not breastfed,
according to new research.

The study, which was presented at the American Public Health
Association’s 136th Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego, looked at
whether breastfeeding is associated with decreased behavioral problems
and psychiatric illness during childhood.
Read the rest of this entry