title: Vitamin D in children and adolescents.
abstract: Vitamin D is essential for bone growth and development in children and adolescents. Vitamin D deficiency leads to rickets, characterized by defective bone formation, in infants and children. Vitamin D prophylaxis during the first years of life has empirically shown to be effective in combating rickets in infants in some countries. Vitamin D insufficiency can have negative effects on bone health in older children and in adolescents. Vitamin D supplementation has been shown to have an effect on bone mineral density at least in vitamin D deprived older children and adolescents but not in those with a normal vitamin D status. A good vitamin D status during pregnancy seems to be important for bone health in the off-spring later in life, but randomized controlled studies are needed to establish an effect of vitamin D during pregnancy on bone and other health outcomes in the offspring. Vitamin D supplementation during childhood may offer protection against diabetes type 1, but randomized controlled trials are needed to ascertain causality.
authors.affiliation: University of Helsinki Department of Food and Environmental Sciences, Finland. christel.lamberg-allardt@helsinki.fi
authors.forename: Christel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lamberg-Allardt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015519:Bone Density; D002648:Child; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000517:prevention & control; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D006801:Humans; D012279:Rickets / Q000209:etiology; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000097:blood / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D014807:Vitamin D; C104450:25-hydroxyvitamin D