Vitamin D deficiency in term newborn and efficacy of oral vitamin D supplement

Abstract

Introduction: Vitamin D deficiency has emerged as a significant public health problem throughout the world. Even in the Indian context, it has been reported to be present in majority of children in spite of wide availability of sunlight. The manifestations of deficiency are hypocalcaemia seizures of infants, rickets in infancy to tetany in older children. Treatment consists of vitamin D supplementation as Stoss therapy or daily or weekly oral regimens with equal efficacy and safety, combined with calcium supplements. The study was undertaken to determine vitamin D levels in term normal neonates and to observe the efficacy of Single high dose oral Vitamin D therapy. To detect serum vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency in term normal new born and efficacy of oral vitamin D supplement Materials and Methods: 50 term normal new born were randomly selected. Cord blood was collected in plane tube, serum separated and tested for serum vitamin D, calcium, phosphorus and ALP by immune fluorescence assay technique. The babies with the vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency were supplemented with single high dose of vitamin D 60,000 IU given orally. These investigations were repeated after 45 days. This was a Prospective interventional study done between April 2017 to September 2017. Results: Cord blood serum vitamin D, calcium, phosphorous and ALP levels at the time of birth showed only 5(10%) babies had normal serum vitamin D levels, 31(62%) babies had deficiency and14(28%) babies had insufficiency respectively. Babies with low Vitamin D levels were given single high dose vitamin D 60,000 IU orally. After 45 days serum vitamin D levels were normalized and none of the babies had hypervitaminosis (>100 ng/ml) with mean serum value of vitamin D was 45.58 mic/dl. Single high dose of vitamin D therapy i.e. 60,000 IU is effective in normalizing the serum vitamin D levels in the babies Conclusion: Most of our new borns, are born with vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, and only a few b