There has been a lot of talk recently about the importance of vitamin D for infants and children and how many kids don't get enough.
Now the FDA is alerting parents that "some liquid vitamin D supplement products are sold with droppers that could allow excessive dosing of Vitamin D to infants." Although getting enough vitamin D is important, getting too much can be harmful.
To make sure that their kids don't get too much vitamin D, parents should talk to their pediatrician about their child's vitamin D needs, make sure they don't get more than 400 IU a day, follow dosing instructions carefully, and should only use the dropper that came with their vitamin D supplement.
Related:
FDA Alert - Liquid Vitamin D Overdose Risk
Vitamin D
Baby Vitamins
Why make sure children get no more than 400 IU a day?
The recommendation should be based on body weight not a single number. A child playing in a wading pool for 20 minutes in the back yard on a sunny day will generate a lot more than that. At about 25 IUs per pound, 400 IUs would be adequate for a 16 pound baby. To get to toxic the kid has to have hundreds of times the 400 IUs per day. An adult can take 10,000 IUs per day and more for extended periods with no harmful side effects. This warning is simple fear mongering. Where are the cases of children being overdosed on vitamin D? I see no epidemic indicating there is a risk.
“This warning is simple fear mongering.”
The warning is to help make sure that parents give the dose of vitamin D that they are intending to give. If they use a dropper that does not clearly have a marker for 400IU or a dropper for another medication, then they can unintentionally give much more.
Thank you, Dr. Iannelli, for this appropriate, sensible warning for parents.
In addition, when a liquid vitamin D supplement also contains mutiple fat-soluble vitamins, dosing is even more important since vitamin A can be toxic in large amounts.
If you read the FDA warning they do not have a single reported case of a child being harmed by vitamin D drops. Not a single case EVER.
What they have done is equivalent to yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre.
The FDA has another agenda at work.
‘What they have done is equivalent to yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre.’
Not sure how I see how those are the same thing. The FDA is warning of a potential danger.
If they had not issued a warning and something did happen, everyone would have said that the FDA was sleeping on the job again…
I have seen a baby infant in ER who’s mother was dropping vitamin D in his mouth when the plastic dropper sealed to the bottle suddenly fell down and the baby got the syrup in his mouth and poured around his face.
Our vit D bottles are manufactured by Novartis. This is a picture of one of them>
http://dc11.arabsh.com/i/01679/rtmxgzau5kzs.jpg