Do children’s bones at age three reflect mum’s vitamin D?
This is the first DXA study of three-year olds, researchers say
The length of children’s long bones at age three is determined, not by maternal vitamin D or mother or child’s diet, but simply by genetics, a study suggests.
Canadian researchers followed 357 pregnant women from their third trimester and then measured the length of the eight long bones in their 357 offspring at age three, using a dual-energy absorptiometry (DXA) scan.
“To our knowledge, no one has ever reported on bone length derived from DXA scans in children,” the authors write in the journal Bone.
Their analysis found that maternal serum 25(OH)D, total vitamin D, calcium and protein intake, and BMI pre-pregnancy were not related to child bone length.
