Western Australian researchers have determined that children born to vitamin D deficient mothers are twice as likely to have severe language problems — a startling finding in light of surprisingly high vitamin D deficiency in Australia.

The study, published in the journal “Pediatrics” was believed to be the first to look at vitamin D and language development. The West Australian reported, “Associate Professor Andrew Whitehouse, who led the research, said the finding was significant, given vitamin D levels in women were known to have decreased steadily over the past 20 years. ‘The developing baby is completely reliant on the mother for its vitamin D levels and what we have shown is that this might have an impact on the child’s brain development,” Dr Whitehouse said.

Whitehouse continued in the story, “’We’ve known for some years that vitamin D insufficiency during pregnancy in mums is associated with a number of adverse health effects, including poor growth of the baby and asthma, but no human studies have shown an association with language difficulties. These are more severe language problems in school years, because while we know 12 per cent of toddlers have language delays, many of them resolve by the time they get to school, whereas language problems which persist to school years tend to stick around for much of their life.’”

Australian officials are surprised at alarmingly high vitamin D deficiency nationwide in light of the world’s strongest anti-sun campaign, which began more than a generation ago, encouraging daily sunscreen usage and sun avoidance.

To read the West Australian’s article click here.