How to Feed Your Child Enough Vitamin D

Kids get vitamin D, also known as the "sunshine vitamin," from the sun as well as from food. Here's how to make sure they get enough.

Things You'll Need

  • Fatty Fish Like Salmon Or Bluefish
  • Shrimp
  • Skim Milk
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Instructions

    • 1

      Drink non-fat milk for vitamin D as well as calcium. Each cup has 100 IU of vitamin D.

    • 2

      Scramble, hard boil or poach eggs. Each one has 25 IU.

    • 3

      Grill fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and bluefish. Three ounces of salmon has about 300 IU.

    • 4

      Don't skimp on shrimp. Three ounces of shrimp has 150 IU.

    • 5

      Send kids outside to play. Fifteen minutes of sun exposure on hands and face each day will almost meet their vitamin D needs.

Tips & Warnings

  • The Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for vitamin D, in International Units (IU), are: infants 0 to 6 months, 300 IU; infants and children 6 months to 10 years, 400 IU.

  • Vitamin D is essential for the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, and therefore for bone health.

  • In the past, kids were given cod liver oil to prevent rickets, the bone disease caused by vitamin D deficiency. These days, milk is fortified with vitamin D and rickets is much less common.

  • Sun exposure is unpredictable for meeting vitamin D needs. The farther north you live, the more smog in your area, and the darker your skin, the longer it takes your body to synthesize vitamin D from sunlight.

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