Vitamin D Dose-Response Study to Establish Dietary Requirements in Infants
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2011-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
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.