Language understanding by infant is associated with vitamin D level during pregnancy

Gestational Vitamin 25(OH)D Status as a Risk Factor for Receptive Language Development: A 24-Month, Longitudinal, Observational Study

Nutrients 2015, 7, 9918–9930; doi:10.3390/nu7125499

Frances A. Tylavsky 1,2,*, Mehmet Kocak 1, Laura E. Murphy 3,4, J. Carolyn Graff 4,5

Emerging data suggest that vitamin D status during childhood and adolescence can affect neurocognitive development. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether gestational 25(OH)D status is associated with early childhood cognitive and receptive language development. The Conditions Affecting Neurocognitive Development and Learning in Early Childhood Study (CANDLE) study enrolled 1503 mother-child dyads during the second trimester of healthy singleton pregnancies from Shelby County TN. Among 1020 participants of the total CANDLE cohort for whom 25(OH)D levels were available, mean gestational 25(OH)D level during the second trimester was 22.3 ng/mL (range 5.9–68.4), with 41.7% of values <20 ng/dL. Cognitive and language scaled scores increased in a stair-step manner as gestational 25(OH)D levels in the second trimester rose from <20 ng/dL, through 20–29.99 ng/dL, to ě30 ng/dL. When controlling for socioeconomic status, race, use of tobacco products, gestational age of the child at birth, and age at the 2-year assessment, the gestational 25(OH)D was positively related to receptive language development (p < 0.017), but not cognitive or expressive language.

Clipped from Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the largest prospective study to date examining the potential impact of

gestational 25(OH)D status upon early childhood cognitive and language development in a racially

diverse population. We found that higher gestational 25(OH)D status significantly associated with

higher scaled scores for receptive language in offspring at 2 years of age.

In humans, 25(OH)D levels during pregnancy have been positively associated with

neurocognitive development in some ^[14,16] but not all studies [40–42]. Our observations support

that language development is positively associated with gestational 25(OH)D levels as early as

2 years, while Whitehouse et al., showed an effect as late as age 7 ^[14].

Similarly, an effect estimate of 0.24 for receptive and 0.12 for expressive

language scaled score per 10 ng/dL increase in 25(OH)D translates into an increase of 1.0 and 0.6 IQ

point respectively by age 2. The reduction in lifetime earnings has been estimated at $22,000 lost

for each 1 IQ point decrease ^[44].

📄 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki

---

Increasing Vitamin D levels in infants will probably increase Language Reception

Vitamin D levels can be increased during pregnancy by:

• Supplementing with Vitamin D - often as little as one pill every two weeks $0.20/week

• Getting more sunshine

• Getting UVB

  •       Note: It is difficult to get a meaningful amount of vitamin D from food nowdays.

Thus, $4.00 of Vitamin D during pregnancy may result in $22,000 additional lifetime income

See also VitaminDWiki

• 3X more kids were vitamin D deficient when entering UK hospitals than 4 years before – Oct 2014

• UVB added in classroom reduced cavities, increased height, increased academics. etc

• Unsupplemented infants were 19X more likely to be vitamin D deficient - May 2012

  Healthy pregnancies need lots of vitamin D has the following summary

{include}

Infant-Child Intervention trials using Vitamin D:

{category}