Vitamin D status of Asian infants.

Vitamin D intakes of infants aged 6 and 18 months from the Asian community in Southhall, Middlesex, were studied to assess the effectiveness of food fortification as a means of preventing vitamin D deficiency. Infants aged 6 months generally had similar diets to white children of the same age and had reasonable vitamin D intakes owing to consumption of fortified dried milks and cereals, reinforced by health visitors and baby clinics. Children aged 18 months, however, ate largely Asian diets and had much lower vitamin D intakes than the 6-month-old group with a corresponding increase in symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. Hence new measures for preventing vitamin D deficiency should probably be aimed at children aged over 1 year. The results of this survey suggest that fortifying chapati flour would be the most effective method of doing this.