Vitamin D Supplementation in the first two years decreased the risk of internalization problems between 6 and 8 years of life.
It is estimated that one in eight children suffers from a mental disorder. Several predictive factors have been identified, but much remains to be discovered. Previous research suggests that low vitamin D levels in early childhood may be a factor in increasing risk.
A study by a team of Finnish researchers (University of Tampere) has investigated whether a daily supplement of vitamin D3 higher than the recommended dose in early childhood reduces the risk of psychiatric symptoms at school age.
This is part of the Vitamin D Intervention in Infants (VIDI) clinical trial, which is investigating how early intervention with vitamin D3 affects growth and development. In the investigation, the children were randomly divided into two groups, one that received the standard daily dose of 10 micrograms and the other that tripled the amount -30 µg- of vitamin D. They received supplementation daily from two weeks to two years of age. age.
They were followed up and the last checkpoint occurred when they were between 6 and 8 years of age. In the last phase, the parents of 346 children assessed their children’s psychiatric symptoms using a questionnaire.
The study found that daily vitamin D3 supplementation above the standard dose reduced the risk of internalizing problems at school age. In other words, children who received the higher dose had less parent-reported depressed mood, anxiety, and withdrawn behavior than children who received the standard dose.
According to the results, parents reported clinically significant internalizing problems in 11.8% of children who had received the standard dose of daily vitamin D supplementation of 10 µg up to the age of 2 years. 5.6% of those who received the triple vitamin D supplement had similar problems.
The researchers found no differences in externalizing problems, such as aggressive behavior and rule-breaking. Furthermore, no differences were found between the overall extent of psychiatric symptoms in children.
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