The non-profit Vitamin D Council’s January newsletter documents stories of broken bones in very young children that most likely are caused by alarmingly low levels of “The Sunshine Vitamin” in mothers and infants. The letter was distributed this week.

A orthopedic x-ray technician sent a letter to Vitamin D Council founder Dr. John Cannell about his own severe vitamin D deficiency — just 9 ng/ml — and how that may have contributed to his son’s poor bones as an infant. “His x-rays in our office looked like it could be a battered child,” the man wrote in his letter to Dr. Cannell. “Thank God I knew better and was believed. He was then sent to physical therapy to help with balance and coordination, where on the first day fell and broke both wrists. The endocrinologists and orthopedists could find no reason for his soft bones. That was 38 years ago.”

Cannell wonders how many cases of broken bones in young children have been classified as child abuse instead of severe vitamin D deficiency.

To read Dr. Cannell’s newsletter click here.