Pediatricians Finally Admit Children Need More Vitamin D

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has doubled its recommended daily vitamin D intake for children and adolescents, citing concern over rising levels of rickets as well as new evidence that higher vitamin D intake may help prevent against a wide variety of diseases.

Vitamin D plays a critical role in bone health. Deficiency in children can lead to the bone-softening disease rickets, which can cause permanent deformity.

“New evidence [also] supports a potential role for vitamin D in maintaining innate immunity and preventing diseases such as diabetes and cancer,” the new policy reads.

What Are Vitamins and Minerals?

Vitamins and minerals make people’s bodies work properly. Although you get vitamins and minerals from the foods you eat every day, some foods have more vitamins and minerals than others.Vitamins fall into two categories: fat soluble and water soluble. The fat-soluble vitamins — A, D, E, and K — dissolve in fat and can be stored in your body. The water-soluble vitamins — C and the B-complex vitamins (such as vitamins B6, B12, niacin, riboflavin, and folate) — need to dissolve in water before your body can absorb them. Because of this, your body can’t store these vitamins. Any vitamin C or B that your body doesn’t use as it passes through your system is lost (mostly when you pee). So you need a fresh supply of these vitamins every day.