Maternal Vitamin D Status and Childhood Bone Mass at 9 Years

I am back, after a long break. I have been extremely busy with sorting out other things in my life AND being part of a 12-week fitness challenge. Life has definitely not been easy. And...I am back to my obsession about Vitamin D. Found this particular study to be quite interesting. A longitudinal study published in Lancet in 2006 found that maternal Vitamin D status was associated with reduced whole-body and lumbar-spine bone-mineral content (BMC) in children that persists to age 9 years (1).

The study followed 198 children born in 1991-1992 in UK up to 9 years of age and results show that maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy and placental calcium transfer, as indicated by concentrations of umbilical-venous calcium, are significantly correlated with bone-mineral accrual at 9 years of age. The researchers also postulated that maternal vitamin D insufficiency during pregnancy leads to an impairment of placental calcium transport. It is known that the fetus accumulates about 30 g of calcium from the mother in utero, and 80% of this transfer occurs in the last  trimester  of  pregnancy.

Furthermore, your baby's weight at 1 year predicts bone mass at later age (2). So do you all mothers-to-be out there understand the importance of Vitamin D in pregnancy?

1: Javaid MK, Crozier SR, Harvey NC, Gale CR, Dennison EM, Boucher BJ, Arden NK, Godfrey KM, Cooper C; Princess Anne Hospital Study Group. Maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy and childhood bone mass at age 9 years: a longitudinal study. Lancet. 2006 Jan 7;367(9504):36-43. Erratum in: Lancet. 2006 May 6;367(9521):1486.
2. Cooper C, Cawley M, Bhalla A, et al. Childhood growth, physical activity, and peak bone mass in women. J Bone Miner Res 1995; 10: 940–47