Babies who drink 34 ounces (1 liter) a day of formula get enough of the vitamin to meet the new recommendations. But only a third of the babies in the survey drank this much formula, says the CDC’s Cria G. Perrine, PhD, who led the study team.
According to the CDC research, exclusively breastfed babies got the least vitamin D in their diets, followed by babies who drank both breast milk and formula. Babies who were exclusively formula-fed got the most vitamin D.
Overall, more than half of the infants and more than a third of the mothers were considered vitamin D deficient. More than a third of the infants (38%) and a fifth of the mothers (23%) were considered severely deficient.
Merewood points out that supplementation may be especially important for darker-skinned people who absorb less light from the sun and for lighter skinned people who have little exposure to the sun.
