Vitamin D Recommendations for Breastfeeding Mothers

Evidence-Based Recommendations

The recommended daily vitamin D intake for breastfeeding mothers is 10 mg/day (400 IU/day) to support vitamin D content in breast milk and reduce the risk of vitamin D deficiency in both mother and infant 1, 2, 3, 4
Multiple authoritative guidelines consistently recommend that breastfeeding women take a vitamin D supplement of 10 mg/day (400 IU/day) to ensure adequate vitamin D levels 2, 3, 4
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) advises that all breastfeeding women, particularly teenagers and young women, take a supplement that meets 100% of the reference nutrient intake for their age group (10 mg/day or 400 IU/day) 3, 4
Public Health England specifically recommends that lactating women should take a vitamin D supplement of 10 mg/day to ensure they get enough vitamin D 4
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition confirmed that these recommendations should remain unchanged since they were established in 1991 4

Standard maternal supplementation of 400 IU/day increases maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels but has limited effect on neonatal serum 25OHD levels of breastfed infants 1, 2
The Institute of Medicine notes that maternal vitamin D intake only significantly affects neonatal serum 25OHD levels when maternal intake is extremely high (4,000-6,400 IU/day) 2, 3

The upper limit of vitamin D for all adults, including lactating women, is 100 mg/day (4,000 IU/day) 1, 3, 5
Available data do not indicate a basis for deriving upper limits for vitamin D for lactating women that are different from their non-lactating counterparts 2

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) confirms that vitamin D requires supplementation during breastfeeding, as dietary intake alone is insufficient to meet requirements 6

Consider high-dose maternal supplementation of 6,000-6,400 IU/day when direct infant supplementation compliance is challenging, the mother prefers to be the sole source of infant vitamin D, exclusive breastfeeding is planned for ≥6 months, or baseline maternal vitamin D deficiency exists 7
Women with baseline vitamin D deficiency (serum 25(OH)D <50 nmol/L) may require higher doses or longer duration to achieve sufficiency 7