[Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency on healthy infants receiving standard supplementation]

Vitamin D (VD) is essential for calcium and phosphorus metabolism. Its deficiency can cause rickets. In Chile, newborns receive 400UI/day supplementation from the first day of age until the first year.

To describe the VD plasma levels in healthy infants who received supplementation and secondarily to correlate this with seasonality and nutritional status.

Cross sectional study. Infants on exclusive or mixed breastfeeding, with monthly pediatric checkups recei ving 400 UI VD supplementation were evaluated, measuring VD plasma levels at 6 months of age, weight, and length, and their nutritional status was classified according to the WHO growth referen ces (weight/age and weight/length). The VD cut-off concentration values were < 20 ng/ml, 21- 29 ng/ ml, and ≥ 30 ng/ml considered as deficiency, insufficiency, and sufficiency, respectively.

40 infants were studied, 40% had insufficient levels and 40% presented deficiency. Season and nutritio nal status were variables significantly related to lower VD values (Winter-Spring p = 0.007; at risk of malnutrition p = 0.038).

The population who received supplementation presented a high frequency of VD deficiency and insufficiency which increases during winter and spring and in subjects at risk of malnutrition.