NHS<\/a>.<\/p>\nVitamin D helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body and is needed to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy. A lack of vitamin D can lead to bone deformities such as rickets in children, and bone pain caused by a condition called osteomalacia in adults.<\/p>\n
Government advice is that everyone should consider taking a daily vitamin D supplement during the autumn and winter. People at high risk of not getting enough vitamin D, all children aged 1 to 4, and all babies (unless they’re having more than 500ml of infant formula a day) should take a daily supplement throughout the year.<\/p>\n
According to the NHS: “From about late March or early April to the end of September, most people should be able to make all the vitamin D they need from sunlight. The body creates vitamin D from direct sunlight on the skin when outdoors.<\/p>\n
“But between October and early March we do not make enough vitamin D from sunlight.”<\/p>\n
You can get inexpensive vitamin D pills over the counter in supermarkets, health shops, chemists, and online. You can also get vitamin D in some foods. According to the NHS, good sources include:<\/p>\n
oily fish \u2013 such as salmon, sardines, trout, herring or mackerelred meategg yolksfortified foods \u2013 such as some fat spreads and breakfast cerealsliver (avoid liver if you’re pregnant)<\/p>\n
Children from the age of 1 year and adults need 10 micrograms (mcg) of vitamin D a day. This includes pregnant and breastfeeding women, and people at risk of vitamin D deficiency. Babies up to the age of 1 year need 8.5 to 10 micrograms of vitamin D a day.<\/p>\n
A microgram (mcg) is 1,000 times smaller than a milligram (mg). The word microgram is sometimes written with the Greek symbol \u03bc followed by the letter g (\u03bcg).<\/p>\n
Sometimes the amount of vitamin D is expressed as International Units (IU). 1 microgram of vitamin D is equal to 40 IU. So 10 micrograms of vitamin D is equal to 400 IU.<\/p>\n
The NHS said: “During the autumn and winter, you need to get vitamin D from your diet because the sun is not strong enough for the body to make vitamin D. But since it’s difficult for people to get enough vitamin D from food alone, everyone (including pregnant and breastfeeding women) should consider taking a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D during the autumn and winter.”<\/p>\n
They add: “The Department of Health and Social Care recommends that adults and children over 4 take a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D throughout the year if they:<\/p>\n
are not often outdoors \u2013 for example, if they’re frail or houseboundare in an institution like a care homeusually wear clothes that cover up most of their skin when outdoors<\/p>\n
“If you have dark skin \u2013 for example you have an African, African-Caribbean or south Asian background \u2013 you may also not make enough vitamin D from sunlight. You should consider taking a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D throughout the year.”<\/p>\n
Advice for infants and young children<\/p>\n
The Department of Health and Social Care recommends that babies from birth to 1 year of age should have a daily supplement containing 8.5 to 10 micrograms of vitamin D throughout the year if they are:<\/p>\n
breastfedformula-fed and are having less than 500ml (about a pint) of infant formula a day, as infant formula is already fortified with vitamin D<\/p>\n
Children aged 1 to 4 years old should be given a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D throughout the year. You can buy vitamin D supplements or vitamin drops containing vitamin D (for under 5s) at most pharmacies and supermarkets.<\/p>\n
Women and children who qualify for the Healthy Start scheme can get free supplements containing vitamin D. See the Healthy Start website<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some people can get the tablets free while others will need to buy it themselves Neil Shaw Assistant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[103,61,60,371,782],"class_list":["post-615391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-medication","tag-nhs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0_GettyImages-2160747035.jpg\")
<\/p>\n