Nursery World - 'Give vitamin D under five'

Babies who are given vitamin D supplements may be protected against developing Type 1 diabetes in later life, according to a new study.

Paediatric researchers from Stockport NHS Foundation Trust carried out areview of a possible association between vitamin D supplementation inearly childhood and a reduced risk of developing Type 1 diabetes. Theylooked at five studies covering 6,455 European children ranging frombirth to five years old, and found that those given extra vitamin D,usually cod liver oil, had their risk of developing diabetes fall by 29per cent.

Dr Christos Zipitis, lead researcher, said, 'When we compared thechildren who were supplemented to those who weren't, the chance of themdeveloping diabetes was reduced by 29 per cent. The strength of ourstudy is that we were able to combine 6,500 subjects, so this is quite asignificant finding.

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