Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy can increase the risks associated with giving birth to a baby with vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is essential for bone growth and a deficiency can lead to many diseases including rickets, a bone-softening disease found in young children. A French study also observed the risk greater during the last stages of pregnancy.
The researchers found exposure to urban levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter below 10 micro meters, particularly during the third- trimester putting the babies at a higher risk of having a low vitamin D status at birth.
The 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which is the standard test to determine changes in the bone structure in accordance with the vitamin D status in the body was the method used by the researchers.
The findings published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM) examined 375 mothers and their babies.
"We investigated the associations between gestational exposure to urban air pollutants and vitamin D cord blood serum level," said Nour Baïz, MASc, of Intitut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) in Paris, France who led the study, in a news release.
"Our findings show for the first time, that exposure to ambient air pollution comparable to current World Health Organization standards might contribute to vitamin D deficiency in newborns."
According the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children should consume foods rich with vitamin D -milk, juice, cereal, orange juice, yogurt and margarine- everyday.
Foods like shiitake and button mushrooms, oily fish (tuna, mackerel, trout, herring, sardines, kipper, carp, anchovies and orange roughy), beef liver, cheese, and egg yolks are some of the natural sources of vitamin D apart from the sunshine.
Apart from that, they also recommend children to take vitamin D supplements daily, as it is difficult to maintain the adequate levels only through diet. Finding the life-long health benefits of vitamin D, the AAP revised the daily vitamin D supplementation from 200 IU to 400 per day.
Earlier researches have proved the importance of vitamin D. In August, a team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) found the power of vitamin D supplementation in protecting children from many respiratory infections in winter.
Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in May found vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy making children obese by age six.
