Healthy Kids    

Why do children need Vitamin D and how is the best way to get it?



Dr. Janet Sullivan of Hudson Health Plan gives us the answer

    We have long known children and women need Vitamin D for strong bones. Recently we learned that vitamin D may be very important in other ways as well:  for preventing depression, cancer and heart disease; to fight infections; in brain development and ensuring that mothers-to-be have healthy babies.

    Humans get vitamin D from food and from sun by making vitamin D in our skin. Some people believe that a little daily sun on your skin is enough to get all the vitamin D you need, but I don’t agree. How much sunlight we need to make vitamin D depends on the color of our skin and where we live.  The darker our skin, the more light we need to make vitamin D.  Around the equator the sun is strong, but in the Hudson Valley, the sunlight is too weak. I personally take vitamin D every day. I give it to my husband, my mother,  my children and my grandchildren. But not all doctors agree with me. The best thing you can do is talk to your doctor about how you can be certain that you and your children are getting enough vitamin D.


Dr. Janet Sullivan
Chief Medical Officer
Hudson Health Plan