I want to declare first that I am not a doctor, nurse or nutritionist.
However, I have been wanting to share about numerous peer reviewed journal articles that say up to 75% of children with autism are deficient in Vitamin D. Who cares you say, I'm a teacher not a pediatrician, right? Well, due to this new connection many studies are now conducting interventions by providing children with ASD 5,000IUs daily to see if there is a decrease in autism symptoms. Every peer reviewed study that I have read (I will include some below) reported a decrease in symptoms. A few quotes from one extensive study: Mazahery et al., (2019) states that “two months of high dose vitamin D3 supplementation (150,000 IU per month administered intramuscularly plus 400 IU per day orally) improved autistic core symptoms”. Children under 3 years of age showed the best response to vitamin intervention. Why am I interested in this, or how did I find these studies? No one we visit for pediatric care for our son, who has autism, has ever suggested he take vitamin D. My son's symptoms dramatically reduced after removing gluten and dairy from his diet. He would spin in circles and flap his hands. He also exhibited depression, anger, poor handwriting and difficulty with math. Most of these issues were relieved by removing gluten and dairy. What remained was anxiety and a short-tempered disposition. After he began 5,000IUs daily of Vitamin D the anxiety lessened and he was no longer in a state of irritability. I want to stress he still has high functioning autism. It is not a miracle removal of autism. He still has social deficits, takes things literally, is black and white and loves making detailed lists. It does however put him on a different level of happiness that is obvious in our home. If he misses a week of taking vitamin D he is irritable again. I decided to share this now because autism research has put effort more recently into the connection of vitamin D and autism. The studies do not mention the specific administration of vitamin D but in case someone you care about wants to try this non-invasive intervention it would be a good idea see their doctor to get a baseline of Vitamin D to see if they are deficient and to understand that this particular vitamin must be taken with food, particularly fats. Once again I am not a doctor but this information may take years to filter out to the local pediatrician. Below are some of the articles you can read. NIH also has an easy database available and "autism vitamin D" will turn up some of these. The study below states that "children with vitamin D deficiency have a 3.5 times higher risk of having ASD compared to children with normal vitamin levels" Chtourou, M., Naifar, M., Grayaa, S., Hajkacem, I., Touhemi, D. B., Ayadi, F., & Moalla, Y. (2019). Vitamin d status in TUNISIAN children with autism spectrum disorders. Clinica Chimica Acta, 493, S619–S620. The article below has numerous citations from other studies (helpful!), including those conducted in other countries. Mazahery, H., Conlon, C. A., Beck, K. L., Mugridge, O., Kruger, M. C., Stonehouse, W., … von Hurst, P. R. (2019). A Randomised-Controlled Trial of Vitamin D and Omega-3 Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in the Treatment of Core Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 49(5), 1778–1794.
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AuthorSpecial Education major in a university teaching program. Substitute teacher, previous homeschool mom, wife. Archives
September 2019
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