Vitamin D - just do it! - Aviva Alyeshmerni MD, Inc.

How much Vitamin D do you need?

Healthy adults need 1000-2000 IU of Vitamin D per day and children need 400-1000 IU.

Breastfeeding moms need 5000 IU. Although you can get 425 IU in a 3-ounce serving of salmon, and 270 IU in 3.5 ounces of canned sardines, most foods provide very little:

Egg yolk- 25 IU
Cheddar cheese -2.8 IU per ounce*

And to be clear, an adult would need 3 servings of salmon every day to meet the recommendations. Milk has 100 IU per cup. If you get your child to drink 10 cups to meet their requirements you will have
an entirely new set of problems.

I too have read the articles that say 15 mins of sun per day is all you need. Impossible. I’ve been
screening my sun loving patients for the past decade and can count on one hand the number of kiddos
whose Vitamin D blood levels have been where we want them. Cover up and skip skin cancer.

If not for yourself then please please please put your little ones on Vitamin D.

40% to 60% of adult bone mass is accrued during the adolescent years. Peak bone mineral accretion rates occur in infancy and at 12.5 years for girls and 14.0 years for boys.

At age 18 years, approximately 90% of peak bone mass has been accrued. Childhood and adolescence,
therefore, are critical periods for skeletal mineralization.** Recent studies show that most children
aren’t getting enough vitamin D.