Vitamin D
Vitamin D is crucial to the growth of healthy bones. It is especially important that babies get enough of it during the first twelve months of their lives when their bones are growing rapidly. This is why health care providers frequently recommend that parents give their babies a daily vitamin D supplement. A new study confirms that 400 IU of supplemental vitamin D daily is sufficient for infant health. While other countries recommend 800IU-1000IU, which is not harmful, the Pediatrics study found that these doses exhibited no benefit over 400IU.Reflux
Two thirds of otherwise healthy infants spit up because of their physiology, and they should be treated not with medication but with modest lifestyle changes as altering their position during feeding. Medications should be reserved for infants who actually have severe gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), according to an American Academy of Pediatrics clinical report.This report came out because of an increasing number of inappropriate prescriptions for proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are being written to treat pediatric patients.
"In the infant with uncomplicated recurrent regurgitation, it may be important to recognize physiologic GER that is effortless, painless, and not affecting growth," the authors write. "In this situation, pediatricians should focus on minimal testing and conservative management. Overuse of medications in the so-called 'happy spitter' should be avoided by all pediatric physicians."
At the heart of the guidelines is the pediatricians' ability to distinguish typical spitting up from the more problematic GERD, in which vomiting is accompanied by such symptoms as irritability, weight loss, refusing to eat, coughing, or wheezing and is confirmed through a series of diagnostic tests.
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