In 2022, recommendations for vitamin D supplementation in children were updated in France. The objective of this study was to assess real-life practices of vitamin D supplementation in children following these recommendations.

A thirty-three-question questionnaire was distributed to members of the scientific societies of paediatrics and general medicine via an online platform.

There were 966 respondents, of whom 87 % were paediatricians and 13 % were general practitioners. About half of the physicians (47 %) were in private practice, 49 % worked in a hospital centre and 6 % worked in a maternal and child health centre. As recommended and regardless of the professional practice, vitamin D supplementation was almost systematically prescribed in all age groups (over 90 % of respondents), in daily doses up to 2 years of age (97 % of all respondents) and then every 3 months in older children (year-round in 38 % and winter/spring only in 40 %). Contrary to the new recommendations, loading doses of 200,000 units of vitamin D were prescribed by 5 % of respondents and non-pharmaceutical forms of vitamin D (e.g. unlicensed food supplements) were prescribed by 10 % of respondents. Although risk factors such as low sun exposure and dark skin were well known by respondents (75 % and 74 % respectively), obesity and veganism were only reported by half the respondents (40 % and 53 % respectively). Two-thirds (61 %) of respondents reported assessing calcium intakes when following children; however, only 10 % of them use specific questionnaires or calcium equivalence tables. Finally, the calcium content of foods and its bioavailability appeared to be poorly understood by health professionals.

This survey shows that the practice of paediatricians and general practitioners are in accordance with the new recommendations for vitamin D supplementation in very young children. The identification by this survey of knowledge gaps will allow targeted information campaigns.