Broken bones and fractures are often a fact of life when you’re a kid. Accidents happen, but a new study warns that poor nutrition can make these little injuries far worse than they usually are. Specifically, children dealing with vitamin D deficiency heal much slower after a bone fracture.

This finding, presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference & Exhibition, sheds light on the importance of this crucial nutrient in pediatric orthopedic care. While vitamin D has long been known to play a vital role in bone health, its specific impact on fracture healing in children has remained largely unexplored. Now, researchers have uncovered this compelling link between vitamin D levels and the time it takes for young patients to recover from broken bones.

The study, conducted by a team led by Dr. Jessica McQuerry, examined 186 cases of extremity fractures in children between 2015 and 2022. The results were eye-opening. Children with low vitamin D levels took significantly longer to heal than their peers with normal levels.

For leg fractures that didn’t require surgery, the difference was stark. Children with low vitamin D levels needed an extra 20 days for clinical healing – that’s nearly three weeks of additional recovery time. Even more striking was the difference in radiographic healing, where signs of the fracture disappearing on X-rays took two months longer in the vitamin D-deficient group.