[Prophylactic prescription of vitamin D in France: National multicenter epidemiological study of 3240 children under 6years of age

[Article in French]
Arch Pediatr. 2012 Nov 9. pii: S0929-693X(12)00432-0. doi: 10.1016/j.arcped.2012.09.011. Mallet E, Gaudelus J, Reinert P, Stagnara J, Bénichou J, Castanet M, Thill C, Basuyau JP, Billard C, Roden A, Uhlrich J.
Centre de référence des maladies rares du calcium et du phosphore, CIC Inserm 204 antenne pédiatrique, CHU de Rouen, 76000 Rouen, France. Electronic address: eric.mallet at chu-rouen.fr.

AIMS:
The aim of the study was to assess compliance with the current recommendations of prophylactic prescription of vitamin D via a multicentric cross-sectional epidemiological survey of 3240 children under 6years of age.

METHOD:
Parent questionnaires and data from the health records of children presenting to the emergency departments of 25 teaching hospitals and hospital centers provided information on the children's characteristics, their prescriptions, and other vitamin D intake. Based on the currently applicable recommendations, intakes of 600-1200IU/day - 900-1500 IU/day for children with pigmented skin and/or premature and/or hypotrophic children - are considered adequate.

RESULTS:
In 1606 infants, 9.8% of the prescriptions were below and 23.7% were above the recommendations; in 1256 children between 18 months and 5years of age, 53.4% of the prescriptions were below and 5.1% were above the recommendations.

Children at risk, those from the southern half of France, and those between 18months and 5years of age were more likely to receive a prescription below the recommendations; their risk of receiving a prescription above the recommended guidelines was smaller.

Of the children aged between 61 and 71months, 85% had not received any prescription at all during the previous 12months. These results were compared with the laboratory data collected from a subsample of children. There was a significant correlation between the adequacy of the prescription and the biological vitamin D status both for 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH-D) serological concentrations and for calciuria.

CONCLUSIONS:
Only 66.6% of the prescriptions in children between 0 and 18months of age and 41.5% in children between 19months and 5 years of age comply with the recommendations; 53.4% of the prescriptions in the latter age group are below the current recommendations.

Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier SAS.

PMID: 23146324

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French doctors seem to assume that vitamin D can only be prescribed

See also VitaminDWiki

• All items in category Infant/Child and vitamin D 780 items
• Infants receiving 1600 IU of vitamin D were safe and healthy – Aug 2012
• Unsupplemented infants were 19X more likely to be vitamin D deficient - May 2012
• Death of Babies in UK due to vitamin D deficiency – Jan 2012
• French Society of Paediatics Vitamin D recommendations – Jan 2012
• Recommend 100 IU of vitamin D per kg of infant - Poland July 2011 which includes the following graph

+Appears that Polish children should get about 1800 IU of vitamin D