How old is she? Can you up the supplement dosage? What about using a tanning salon occasionally?
Do you have a light-therapy lamp? It’s for SAD, (seasonal affective disorder), but it might help with vitamin D. Anyway, it’s non-invasive, and could be worth a try.
if needed,
doctors give vit d shots.
50,000 units once a week for 4 weeks, then go to once a month
That's the best source of Vitamin D.
If she is taking supplements, I’m not sure telling you about more egg yolks, sun, and cod liver oil will help.
I was just reading this today:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/sunshine-vitamin-d-and-death-by-scientific-consensus/
There is an article here on FR about it, but I lost that link.
Anyway, they seem to indicate you can take up to 10,000 IU a day without negative side effects:
“Nevertheless, the NIH’s current recommended dosage for vitamin D supplementation remains basically unchanged since it was established to prevent rickets. In fact, the maximum safe dosage of vitamin D3, the preferred dietary form, is currently 2000IU. This is extremely unfortunate because it takes about a hundred IU to raise serum blood levels by 1 ng/ml in a healthy adult. To get into the optimal range, 40 to 60 ng/ml, one would therefore have to take 4000 IU daily. It would take even more if you were obese, are taking certain medications, or have one of a number of medical conditions that degrade or prevent the creation of usable D. The evidence, incidentally, is that 10,000IU is entirely safe.”
From MedscapeCME Clinical Briefs
Vitamin D3 Supplements in Winter May Help Protect Against Influenza A CME/CE
News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD
CME Author: Désirée Lie, MD, MSEd
CME/CE Released: 04/02/2010;
April 2, 2010 — Vitamin D3 supplementation during the winter is linked to lower incidence of influenza A, particularly in specific subgroups of schoolchildren, according to the results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial reported online in the March 10 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
“To our knowledge, no rigorously designed clinical trials have evaluated the relation between vitamin D and physician diagnosed seasonal influenza,” write Mitsuyoshi Urashima, MD, PhD, from Jikei University School of Medicine, Minato-ku, in Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues. “We investigated the effect of vitamin D supplements on the incidence of seasonal influenza A in schoolchildren.”
Schoolchildren were randomly assigned to receive vitamin D3 supplements (1200 IU/day) or placebo from December 2008 through March 2009. The main endpoint of the study was the incidence of influenza A, diagnosed by influenza antigen testing (rapid influenza diagnostic test [RIDT]) on a nasopharyngeal swab specimen.
In the vitamin D3 group, 18 (10.8%) of 167 children had influenza A, as did 31 (18.6%) of 167 children in the placebo group (relative risk [RR], 0.58; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.34 - 0.99; P = .04). The association of decreased influenza A incidence with vitamin D supplements was stronger in children who had not been taking other vitamin D supplements (RR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.17 - 0.79; P = .006) and in those who started nursery school after age 3 years (RR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.17 - 0.78; P = .005).
Among children with a previous diagnosis of asthma, 2 children in the vitamin D3 group vs 12 children in the placebo group had asthma attacks as a secondary outcome (RR, 0.17; 95% CI, 0.04 - 0.73; P = .006).
“This study suggests that vitamin D3 supplementation during the winter may reduce the incidence of influenza A, especially in specific subgroups of schoolchildren,” the study authors write. “....Moreover, asthma attacks were also prevented by vitamin D3 supplementation.”
.......
Tons of info here. Dr. Cannell seems very knowledgable. I hope you find help!
Got any thing that can help?
Don’t take A with D. A and D use the same way to get into the cells. A will get in first and block the D. This isn’t very technical way of describing it, sorry, best way for me to explain though.
Direct sunshine, it’s not bad for you, lack thereof is the reason for low Vitamin D and even skin cancer, that’s right. Do not use a suntan salon unless you want her to get skin cancer. Again, Direct Sunshine !!
You may have to insist on this as many doctors tend to resist the possibility of celiac disease. If it is celiac disease, then the exclusion of wheat and other sources of gluten will make for a major improvement in your daughter's health. Consultation with a nutritionist and the use of supplements will be helpful.
(2) Give your daughter vitamin D3 in the dry form. This is more readily absorbed when the intestinal system is damaged by a malabsorption disorder.
As others have said, you need to supplement at higher doses for a while.
Magnesium can help with asthma. Make sure you get a high-quality type (not oxide). Quercetin can help with pollen allergies. Good luck!
Sorry to hear about your little one. It’s so hard when they’re sick all the time isn’t it. Our 11 month old had a febrile seizure recently from a fever and while I know they are “harmless” I still shake remembering it.
I don’t know how much help I can be. My first suggestion was going to be sun, but obviously rainy/cloudy days makes that difficult.
The next thing I would try would be to load up her diet with fortified foods - milks, cheeses, cereal bars, oj, etc. Anything and everything you can find with Vitamin D.
Foods that are naturally high in Vitamin D:
Salmon
Catfish
Some canned tunas
Egg yolk (my girls hate the yolk, but maybe egg salad would work)
As I write this it seems to me that what you need is advice on increasing the absorption of the Vit D. I know that Vit D helps us absorb calcium, but are there things that help us absorb Vit D? Or is it possible there’s an underlying condition (in addition to the anti-seizure medicine) that is preventing her from absorbing Vit D?
In WW II U S Navy Submariners used sun lamps to supplement V D intake.