A recent report has indicated that one quarter of toddlers in the UK are lacking vitamin D. A consultant paediatrician, Dr Benjamin Jacobs, told BBC Breakfast that the hospital saw about one severe case each month of rickets – softening of the bones through lack of vitamin D in childhood. The Feeding for Life Foundation report, published in October last year, suggested that one in four toddlers in the UK is vitamin D deficient.
Vitamin D is naturally found in only a few foods including oily fish and liver, eggs, with small amounts in butter and margarine. Most of our vitamin D intake is from that made by the skin when we are out in the sunshine. Children these days tend to spend less time outdoors being tied to the computer and the television. Amongst the many trampolining health benefits, a trampoline in the garden can prove a useful attraction for children to get outdoors and benefit from some sunshine which will help their vitamin D levels too. Becareful they don’t get burnt though as too much strong sunshine can be harmful. Other trampoline benefits include helping children get fitter and getting them out in the open air. This will all contribute to their general good health.
Vitamin D is important for our bodies in many ways, it is needed to help absorb calcium from foods and to build bones as well as in the immune system. Research shows that in many parts of the UK the majority of children have a low level of vitamin D. In severe cases a lack of vitamin D can cause rickets.
Lack of vitamin D has been linked as a cause to many illnesses including asthma, childhood obesity, osteoporosis, cancer and heart disease, aswell as many others.
According to Dr Jacobs, it would not be harmful if people ended up with too much vitamin D in their diet.
Author: Bob Bounce