Andy, my son was also vit D deficient, do you know how much of a dose he should take (he is 27kg).
Sharmin
It's been quite a while since this question was posted, but I am certain that even now this answer can help - after all the vitamin D supplementation tends to last so long.
This story should be told in another thread (how I come to realize that all), because it is so long, but for now only the important things.
Firstly I would like to tell you that according to research, there is no danger when taking vitamin D in doses like 10000 iu. This is described here:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/69/5/842However, this is based on an adult that weighs for example 60-70 kg, so in the case of a child this should be scaled down accordingly to child's weight.
Secondly, if the deficiency is very severe (based on the blood test) it is allowed to use doses even greater than 10000 iu (for adults). All that has to be done is periodic calcium test in blood and in 24h urine collection, to see if too much calcium is not absorbed.
Your target vitamin D blood level is at least 30 ng/mL or better 40 ng/mL.
Dosage should be adjusted accordingly to the initial and target vitamin D level. And the supplementetion should be done fast, because you don't want to wait forever for the results.
For example first doctor I went to, gave me 500 iu, and it would take me 5 years to reach 45 ng/mL - ridiculous! The next doctor gave me 1000 iu - also ridiculous - 2,5 years to supplement fully.
Now I take 15000-20000 iu per day, but I weigh 120 kg (however rather not very obese, but very tall, and obese people should take higher dosages for the same effect) and this dosage works for me. I have still 2 months to go with the supplementation in order to achieve 45 ng/mL.
My initial dosage calculation was based on this article, then I calculated dosage according to repeated vitamin D blood tests, and then I increased the dosage to 20000 iu to speed things up. Couldn't wait any longer, because of the health issues caused by this deficiency.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/6123/title/Food_for_Thought__Understanding_Vitamin_D_DeficiencyBut the problem can be remedied with a vitamin D supplement, he adds.
Hollis gives the example of a student who worked in his lab last fall.
Owing to her heavily pigmented skin and obesity, he worried she might
be vitamin D deficient and recommended she have her blood tested for
the vitamin. She did, and the analysis showed that her blood had only
about 7 ng/ml, which is "profoundly deficient," says Hollis. However,
after the student took 4,000 IU of vitamin D per day for 3 months,
Hollis says, "we finally got her blood levels into the mid-30s."
So, summing up. The dosage depends on how fast you need to have your vitamin D balanced, and how many and how often you are willing to take precautionary measures (calcium tests).
B.
PS. What made me really furious is that in this hospital where the test is physically done and the blood "flows" there from the whole Poland, they do not have the correct normal range for vitamin D - they have 11 - 54 ng/mL and this is so wrong because it should be 30 - 54 ng/mL.
All deficient patients with 11-30 ng/mL values are told that they are within normal range, and they are severy deficient.
The lab know about the incorrect normal range, but they say that the doctor will know, how to apply the correct range...
Yeah, right! Even the doctors from this hospital use this incorrect normal range in scientific papers.
So, the bootom line is that sometimes you can't even trust the normal ranges from very renowned laboratory...