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Doctors may be unsure about testing children's vitamin D levels

Category: Vitamin D Deficiency-Diagnosis and Treatment

Administering blood tests to young people to measure their vitamin D levels is not currently a standard part of pediatric care. However, this does not mean that all children have healthy levels of the nutrient.

A recent report published in the International Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology pointed out that vitamin D testing in children who lack traditional risk factors for vitamin D deficiency is currently a grey area in pediatrics. There are currently no agreed upon standards for when testing should be done on children.

Children with darker skin who are overweight or obese are recognized as being at high risk of experiencing vitamin D deficiency. Blood testing is often administered to young people who fall into one of these categories. However, this does little to address concerns about deficiency in children with no risk factors.

A 2004 study published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine estimated that 66 percent of young people have either deficient or insufficient levels of vitamin D. Blood testing may help identify these individuals, making it possible to start them on therapies to correct the problem.