Your Baby And Vitamin D
Throughout your pregnancy, you took prenatal vitamins, and they probably were high in vitamin D. With many women deficient in vitamin D, going into a pregnancy deficient can have a serious impact on you and your baby.
Fortunately, you can get vitamin D easily.
If you want to make sure your baby is growing healthy and strong, you need to make sure that you get this ever so important vitamin. It's a powerful antioxidant and nutrient that we need for our health and happiness.
What's The Best Way To Get Vitamin D?
The best way to get vitamin D is to get out in the sun and experience the sunlight, fresh air, and your body's natural ability to produce vitamin D. We naturally create vitamin D when exposed to the sun.
But, we know if you work in an office or indoors, this can be much more difficult. It can be hard to get out in the sun for 15 minutes every day.
Having to wear heavy winter clothes for at least half of the year can make it almost an impossible task in the North. We recommend having a good quality vitamin D supplements in your arsenal.
What Vitamin D Does For Your Baby?
There's no doubt that babies need vitamin D. Rickets, a bone disorder caused by the lack of vitamin D, is easy for children, especially babies, to develop. However, there's a big debate on whether babies need vitamin D supplements at all.
Other deficiency symptoms include delayed motor development, muscle weakness, aches and pains, and fractures.
Supplementing vitamin D for babies became popular once the supplements were discovered. It did help reduce health problems associated with a lack of vitamin D. Still, there's debate on whether it really helps.
Some holistic practitioners believe allowing your baby to be in the sun more often lets their body produce their own vitamin D more naturally.
But, the best source of vitamin D can be straight from the mother's milk. Some sources show that women who supplement with higher levels of vitamin D pass that on to their babies.
How To Choose The Right Vitamin D Supplement
There's a lot of different vitamins out there, different strengths, and different forms. It could be hard to know which is which. But, there's a couple of guidelines that can help you choose the best supplement for you and your baby if you keep in mind . You don't need all of these, but they are big indications of quality.
- Look for the US Pharmacopeia seal
- Seek out third-party validation for the supplement
- Choose a lower dose supplement and more often
- Avoid mega doses of any supplements
- Choose one with additional calcium, magnesium and or zinc
Fortunately, you do not need a prescription to get vitamin D. Many doctors will prescribe it, but it's unnecessary to obtain the prescription. Good quality supplements might be cheaper and help you have more control over your life and nutrition.
If you do this supplement, be sure to choose vitamin D3. There are several different varieties, primarily vitamin D3 and vitamin D2.
Vitamin D3 is the natural form of the vitamin our bodies produce. Vitamin D2 is linked to heart disease and fortunately not included in supplements anymore.
Most supplements in formulas nowadays use vitamin D3. It's the healthier form of the vitamin, the one our bodies naturally produce. Fortunately, most of the supplements nowadays are exclusively vitamin D3.
As the mother, making sure you have enough vitamin D3 in your diet will help ensure that your child gets enough for healthy growth and development. Getting out into the sun as often as possible and choosing a good supplement will make sure both you and your baby get what you need to be strong and healthy.