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Vitamin D and K benefits

fter birth, it is recommended to give your child extra vitamin D and vitamin K. These are important building blocks that contribute to strong bones and proper blood clotting. But what exactly does it do and what would happen if you don’t?

Babies already get a lot of nutrients through breast or formula, but they still need extra vitamins D and K in addition. This is mainly because they do not yet produce or consume enough of these specific vitamins and deficiencies can have serious consequences.

Vitamin K.

Vitamin K is important for proper blood clotting and is produced in the colon. But babies only make this themselves after three months. The food we get this from, babies only get from about four months old. It is of course added to formula, but not enough.

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That is why it is recommended to give the baby drops of vitamin K (a 150 micrograms) daily, until the baby is three months old or has been fed more than 500 ml of formula. The possibility of solving this with a one-off injection is also currently being looked into .

Risk of vitamin K deficiency

Since vitamin K aids in blood clotting, a deficiency of it can cause bleeding.

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Vitamin D and K benefits
Vitamin D and K benefits

Vitamin D

Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium from food. And calcium aids in the growth of strong bones and teeth. Like vitamin K, vitamin D is also added to formula and is found in all kinds of foods, such as fatty fish, meat and eggs. In addition to nutrition, your skin also absorbs vitamin D from sunlight.

Still, this is not enough for young children. That is why it is recommended to also give vitamin D daily via droplets or tablets (10 micrograms) later until they are four years old.

And because people with dark or tinted skin absorb less vitamin D from sunlight, it is important for them to take vitamin D throughout their lives.

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Risk of vitamin D deficiency

In adults, a vitamin D deficiency can lead to unpleasant complaints. But in children, the deficiency can lead to the rare bone condition Rickets , also known as the English disease.

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