• Andrea J Aul, Philip R Fischer, Matthew R Benson, Sara S Oberhelman-Eaton, Kristin C Mara, and Tom D Thacher.
• From Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; Department of Pediatrics, Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Nemours Children's Health, Jacksonville, FL; Department of Family Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; and Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.
• J Am Board Fam Med. 2023 Feb 8; 36 (1): 9510495-104.

IntroductionRates of infant vitamin D supplementation fall short of guideline recommendations. We explored this discrepancy from the clinician perspective as they advise and affect this important intervention to prevent rickets. We compared infant and high-dose maternal vitamin D supplementation prescribing attitudes and practices between infant-only clinicians (IC) and clinicians who care for mothers and infants (MIC).MethodsWe surveyed clinicians in departments of family medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, primary care pediatrics, neonatology, newborn nursery, and members of vitamin D and rickets working groups and a social media group for lactation medicine providers about their perspectives and practices regarding vitamin D supplementation.Results360 clinician survey responses were analyzed. In current practice, IC were more likely than MIC to recommend vitamin D supplementation to exclusively (P < .001) and partially breastfed infants (P = .005). MIC were more likely than IC to discuss infant and high-dose maternal supplementation options and let the parents/caregivers choose (34.7%, 22.0%, P = .009). If supplementing the mother with high-dose vitamin D or the infant directly each provided adequate vitamin D in the infant, MIC were more likely than IC to think that supplementation of the mother would be preferred by parents/caregivers (63.0%, 45.2%, P = .003), improve adherence (66.5%, 49.4%, P = .006), and promote breastfeeding (54.7%, 36.5%, P = .001); they were also more likely to recommend supplementation of the mother (17.7%, 8.9%, P = .04).ConclusionsMIC are more likely than IC to embrace high-dose maternal vitamin D supplementation to provide adequate vitamin D for infants. This highlights an opportunity for further education of clinicians about this option.© Copyright by the American Board of Family Medicine.

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