The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) is calling for all babies under 12 months to be given vitamin D supplements following a rise in cases of the bone disease rickets, particularly among dark-skinned babies.
The FSAI's scientific committee has identified the re-emergence of rickets, previously thought to have been eradicated in the population, following reports from two Dublin children's hospitals of more than 20 cases in the last two years.
Most of the cases were in children of African-born parents.
The disease causes bone deformities and is the result of a lack of vitamin D. This vitamin is found in a limited number of foods, including oily fish, egg yolk and liver, but is mainly produced by the action of sunlight on the skin.
In addition to rickets, a lack of vitamin D can also contribute to poor immune functions, hypertension and certain cancers.
Vitamin D production by the skin is particularly low during the winter months and most countries with far northern latitudes, including Britain and Canada, already have programmes of dietary supplementation of vitamin D, particularly for babies.
Dark-skinned people require longer exposure to the sun to produce vitamin D, and so those living in northern European countries are more likely to suffer vitamin D deficiencies.
However, the FSAI said, most of the indigenous Irish population is also deficient in vitamin D, as their skin is less frequently exposed to the sun than in previous generations.
The FSAI is recommending the introduction of a national policy of vitamin D supplementation in all infants under 12 months, when bone development is at its most rapid.
Public health nurses and midwives should advise new mothers on the supplement and those who cannot afford it should receive free doses, the FSAI said.
