High Vitamin D dosage may not cut curb common cold in toddlers

Parents please-take-note! A study has revealed that giving high doses of Vitamin D than the recommended amount may not protect your toddler from catching cold in winters.

Among children 1 to 5 years of age, daily high-dose administration of Vitamin D did not reduce overall wintertime upper respiratory tract infections.

Viral upper respiratory tract infections are the most common infectious illnesses of childhood.

Both observational and clinical trial data have suggested a link between low levels of serum 25-hydroxy Vitamin D and increased rates of respiratory tract infections.

Whether winter supplementation of Vitamin D reduces the risk among children is unknown.

Jonathon L. Maguire from Researchers from the University of Toronto randomly assigned children aged one through five years to receive 2,000 IU/d of vitamin D oral supplementation (high-dose group; n=349) or 400 IU/d (standard-dose group; n=354) for a minimum of four months between September and May.

The average number of laboratory-confirmed (based on parent-collected nasal swabs) upper respiratory tract infections per child were 1.05 for the high-dose group and 1.03 for the standard-dose group.

"These findings do not support the routine use of high-dose vitamin D supplementation in children for the prevention of viral upper respiratory tract infections," the authors stated.

A limitation of the study was that children may have had upper respiratory tract infections without swabs being submitted.

The study appears in journal JAMA.

-ANI