At-risk groups
ACTION POINTS
Organise a series of staff training sessions on VMS products.
Appoint a category champion for your VMS section.
Ensure they keep up-to-date on product knowledge and give them responsibility for stocking and merchandising this area of the pharmacy.
For infants and children aged below four years, as there was insufficient data for SACN to set RNIs, it has proposed a ‘safe intake’ of vitamin D. This is in the range
of 8.5-10mcg per day for infants up to 12 months (including exclusively breast-fed and partially breast-fed infants, from birth), and 10mcg per day for children aged between one and four years.
As it is difficult to achieve the RNI or ‘safe intake’ from natural food sources alone, SACN has recommended that strategies be developed to ensure the target intake of vitamin D is achieved through dietary means.
As a consequence, Public Health England is now recommending that people at risk of low 25(OH)D serum levels should take a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D year round, and that everyone should consider taking a supplement in autumn and winter.12