VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY AND ITS EFFECTS ON CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

Abstract — Vitamin D deficiency remains one of the most common and most preventable nutritionalproblems of childhood, yet its consequences extend well beyond the skeleton. This article reviews currentevidence on how low vitamin D status during pregnancy, infancy and childhood affects growth anddevelopment. We summarise the physiology of vitamin D, the reasons children become deficient, and themain developmental domains at risk: bone mineralisation (nutritional rickets), dental formation, musclefunction, neurocognitive development and immune competence. Skeletal effects are firmly established andreversible when treated early. Evidence for neurodevelopmental and immune effects is biologically plausibleand supported by observational studies, but randomised trials remain inconclusive, and these associationsshould not be read as proven causation. Prevention through daily supplementation in infancy, safe sunexposure, dietary measures and targeted screening of at-risk groups is inexpensive and effective. Weconclude that vitamin D adequacy should be treated as a core element of paediatric preventive care. Keywords: vitamin D deficiency, rickets, child development, 25-hydroxyvitamin D,neurodevelopment, supplementation, prevention.