Vitamin D Dose-Response Study to Establish Dietary Requirements in Infants

Summary

The research team is comprised of an expert nutrition scientist and a pediatrician with expertise in endocrinology. Both have world-class experience in assessing bone mass in infancy. Together they have designed a study to determine how much dietary vitamin D is needed to optimize health in infants. This is important since many infants are born with vitamin D deficiency. At present the dosage of vitamin D that is optimal for infant health is unclear and recent research suggests that vitamin D status very early in life has long lasting effects on bone mass and other health issues. Therefore, in a group of healthy infants, this research team will test which dosage of vitamin D is needed to achieve optimal vitamin D status. Optimal vitamin D status will be based on growth, biomarkers of vitamin D and bone status in blood and also general health. The infants will all be breastfed and begin the study at about 2 weeks of age. At 3 months intervals over the first year of life, each infant will be measured for growth, duration of breastfeeding and supplement use plus have a bone density scan to determine changes in bone growth. The data will be helpful to guide health care professionals in providing the best care possible for their infants. It will also be important to the health of populations since dietary recommendations for vitamin D are used to guide fortification of foods and development of evidence based policy around nutrient recommendations and their implementation.

Timeline

Start

2007-03

Primary completion

2011-09

Completion

2011-12

Publications

• Gharibeh N, Gallo S, Sotunde OF, Vanstone CA, Rodd CJ, Weiler HA. Patterns of Bone Mineral Accretion and Sex Differences in Healthy Term Vitamin D Replete and Breastfed Infants From Montreal, Canada: Bone Mass Reference Data. J Clin Densitom. 2022 Jan-Mar;25(1):43-53. doi: 10.1016/j.jocd.2021.07.004. Epub 2021 Jul 24.
• Huey SL, Acharya N, Silver A, Sheni R, Yu EA, Pena-Rosas JP, Mehta S. Effects of oral vitamin D supplementation on linear growth and other health outcomes among children under five years of age. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Dec 8;12(12):CD012875. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD012875.pub2.
• Mok E, Vanstone CA, Gallo S, Li P, Constantin E, Weiler HA. Diet diversity, growth and adiposity in healthy breastfed infants fed homemade complementary foods. Int J Obes (Lond). 2017 May;41(5):776-782. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2017.37. Epub 2017 Feb 6.
• Hazell TJ, Gallo S, Berzina I, Vanstone CA, Rodd C, Weiler HA. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D, more so than its epimer, has a linear relationship to leaner body composition across infancy in healthy term infants. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2014 Oct;39(10):1137-43. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2013-0586. Epub 2014 May 1.
• Gallo S, Comeau K, Vanstone C, Agellon S, Sharma A, Jones G, L'Abbe M, Khamessan A, Rodd C, Weiler H. Effect of different dosages of oral vitamin D supplementation on vitamin D status in healthy, breastfed infants: a randomized trial. JAMA. 2013 May 1;309(17):1785-92. doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.3404.

Drugs

Indications