Maternal Vitamin D Status and Infant Infection
Nutrients 2018, 10(2), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10020111
Sara Moukarzel 1,2,* , Marlies Ozias 3, Elizabeth Kerling 4, Danielle Christifano 5, Jo Wick 6, John Colombo 7 and Susan Carlson 4
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Times for Vitamin D and Health)
Items in both categories Inflammation and Infant-Child are listed here:
- Septic children have low Vitamin D (54 studies, ignored Vitamin D Receptor) – meta-analysis April 2019
- Urinary Tract Infection in children 4.8 X more likely if low Vitamin D – meta-analysis Feb 2019
- Oxidative stress and inflammation associated with low vitamin D in children – review Dec 2018
- Prostate and Urinary systems much better with higher vitamin D – many studies
- Urinary Tract Infection in infants 5.6 X MORE likely if low Vitamin D, 3.3 X LESS likely if supplement – July 2016
- At birth, lower levels of vitamin D associated with higher levels of inflammation – Jan 2017
- Inflammation (CRP) 3X higher in Winter-Spring neonates with low vitamin D – Nov 2015
- Newborns with sepsis – 9 ng of vitamin D, without sepsis 19 ng – Aug 2015
Items in both categories Dark Skin and Infant-Child are listed here:
- Children in India – 1 in 7 extremely low Vitamin D, 1 in 10 prediabetic – Sept 2019
- Pregnant while black increases chance of death – mothers 3X, infants 2X (low Vitamin D) – Feb 2019
- Black infant recurrent wheezing rate dropped from 42 percent to 31 percent with just 400 IU of vitamin D – RCT Dec 2018
- All preteen aged girls in India taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D got levels above 20 ng – RCT Nov 2018
- Low birth weight far more likely if African-American (low vitamin D) – 1997, Aug 2018
- Indoor pollution is a problem with obese black asthmatic children – May 2018
- Crohn's disease in black children is worse in 6 ways – Dec 2015
- Black infants far less likely to be breast-fed (wonder – culture or low Vitamin D) – Aug 2017
- Vitamin D needed to get children to just 20 ng in winter 800 IU white skin, 1100 IU dark (Sweden) – RCT June 2017
- Many US kids have less than 40 ng of Vitamin D – 99 out of 100 blacks, 91 out of 100 whites – Jan 2017
- Small for gestational age with low vitamin D – 3.6X higher for blacks than whites – April 2016
- Type I diabetes in dark skin children associated with low vitamin D if far from equator – Jan 2015
- Dark skinned children were vitamin D deficient in Italy (not infants) – Nov 2014
- Breastfed Infants in Iowa got very little vitamin D, especially if winter or dark skin – July 2013
- Black infants had far lower vitamin D levels which did not vary with season – Jan 2013
- 83 percent of children had less than 20 ng of vitamin D – 15 ng avg for hispanic – Aug 2012
- Rickets in 30 percent of infants in India who had low vitamin D – March 2011
- Large increase in dark skin children with vitamin D deficiency in Glasgow – June 2010
- Dark Skinned babies probably need vitamin D to prevent nutritional rickets - 2001
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Maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy may modulate fetal immune system development and infant susceptibility to infections. Vitamin D deficiency is common during pregnancy, particularly among African American (AA) women. Our objective was to compare maternal vitamin D status (plasma 25(OH)D concentration) during pregnancy and first-year infections in the offspring of African American (AA) and non-AA women. We used medical records to record frequency and type of infections during the first year of life of 220 term infants (69 AA, 151 non-AA) whose mothers participated in the Kansas University DHA Outcomes Study. AA and non-AA groups were compared for maternal 25(OH)D by Mann–Whitney U-test.
Compared to non-AA women, AA women were more likely to be vitamin D deficient (<50 nmol/L; 84% vs. 37%, p < 0.001), and more of their infants had at least one infection in the first 6 months (78.3% and 59.6% of infants, respectively, p = 0.022).
We next explored the relationship between maternal plasma 25(OH)D concentration and infant infections using Spearman correlations. Maternal 25(OH)D concentration was inversely correlated with the number of all infections (p = 0.033), eye, ear, nose, and throat (EENT) infections (p = 0.043), and skin infection (p = 0.021) in the first 6 months.
A model that included maternal education, income, and 25(OH)D identified maternal education as the only significant predictor of infection risk in the first 6 months (p = 0.045); however, maternal education, income, and 25(OH)D were all significantly lower in AA women compared to non-AA women . The high degree of correlation between these variables does not allow determination of which factor is driving the risk of infection; however, the one that is most easily remediated is vitamin D status. It would be of value to learn if vitamin D supplementation in this at-risk group could ameliorate at least part of the increased infection risk.