Vitamin D nutritional status of exclusively breast fed infants and their mothers.
BACKGROUND
Vitamin D nutrition has a profound effect on the development of an infant. Vitamin D status of mothers and their infants are closely correlated. While hypovitaminosis D has emerged as a significant public health problem across all age groups, there is limited information of this condition in lactating mothers and their breast fed infants.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the vitamin D status of lactating mothers and their breast fed infants.


METHODS
180 healthy lactating mothers and exclusively breast fed infants, 2-24 weeks old, were recruited for the study. The mother-infant pairs underwent concurrent clinical, biochemical and hormonal evaluation for calcium-vitamin D-PTH axis.


RESULTS
The mean serum 25(OH)D values in lactating mothers was 27.2 +/- 14.6 nmol/l (10.9 +/- 5.8 ng/ml), while that of their infants was 28.9 +/- 20.8 nmol/l (11.6 +/- 8.3 ng/ml). Serum 25(OH)D levels <25 nmol/l (10 ng/ml) were found in 47.8% of the mothers and 43.2% of the infants. Among these, elevated PTH levels (>54 pg/ml) were seen in 59.3% of the mothers and 69.6% of the infants. A highly significant negative correlation was found between serum 25(OH)D and PTH in mothers (r = -0.480, p = 0.01) and their infants (r = -0.431, p = 0.01). A strong positive correlation was seen of 25(OH)D levels in mother-infant pairs (r = 0.324, p = 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
A high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was found in lactating mothers and their exclusively breast fed infants. Infants born to mothers with hypovitaminosis D had 3.8 times higher risk of developing hypovitaminosis D as compared to those born to mothers with normal vitamin D levels.
Seth
A
A
Department of Pediatrics, Kalawati Saran Hospital, New Delhi, India.
Marwaha
R K
RK
Singla
B
B
Aneja
S
S
Mehrotra
P
P
Sastry
A
A
Khurana
M L
ML
Mani
K
K
Sharma
B
B
Tandon
N
N
D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007228:Infant Nutrition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007774:Lactation / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D009752:Nutritional Status / Q000502:physiology*; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D055815:Young Adult
D014807:Vitamin D; C104450:25-hydroxyvitamin D