Vitamin D helps your unborn baby’s teeth
Introduction
Boosting your vitamin D levels in pregnancy could protect your child against tooth decay…
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Help those baby teeth – before they grow!
Maintaining adequate vitamin D levels while you’re pregnant could protect your baby against tooth decay in childhood, says a Canadian study.
University of Manitoba researchers found that moms of children who developed cavities at an early age had significantly lower vitamin D levels during pregnancy than those whose children were cavity-free. Vitamin D levels were measured in 206 women during the second trimester (weeks 13-28) of their pregnancy, which is when your baby’s future teeth begin to develop and harden in his jawbones. Their babies were followed until around 1 year of age.
Only 21 women (10.5%) were found to have adequate vitamin D levels (the average vitamin level found was around half of what’s considered adequate). Among 135 babies who had their teeth checked, around 22% had noticeable defects in their tooth enamel and around 34% had early childhood tooth decay. The mothers of children with enamel defects in their primary teeth had slightly lower average vitamin D levels while pregnant than those of children without enamel defects – but the mothers of children with early tooth decay had significantly lower vitamin D levels during pregnancy than mothers whose children did not develop early tooth decay.
Vitamin D is being heralded as something of a miracle vitamin, with research linking it to health benefits including prevention from some types of cancer, and heart disease. Unfortunately it’s not easily synthesized by the body. We produce it during exposure to sunlight, but wearing sunscreen limits that exposure (although just 10-15 minutes unprotected exposure to the sun is sufficient); and people living in the northern latitudes may not get enough sun to maintain their levels, especially during the winter months. Vitamin D isn’t present in many foods (those that do contain it include oily fish, fish oil and fortified milk). Ask your OB-GYN or primary care physician whether you might benefit form taking a supplement.
Supernanny Team