Doctors can maximise the bone health of children from focusing on mothers' vitamin D levels in pregnancy
All women are at risk of having a vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy and this may affect the bone health of their unborn baby.
Professor Craig Munns, a paediatric endocrinologist at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and the University of Sydney, says doctors can maximise the bone health of children from focusing on mothers’ vitamin D levels in pregnancy.
“The first thing to do is to make sure mothers’ vitamin D during pregnancy is adequate and you do this by supplementing the mother with 600-1000 units of vitamin D during the pregnancy,” he says.
Some women in pregnancy may be at a higher risk if they are trying to avoid the sun, have a darker skin colour, are obese, or have a comorbidity.
