Breast milk may contain sufficient vitamin C if the mother’s diet is rich in citrus fruits and certain vegetables, but breast milk doesn’t contain enough vitamin D. Bottle-fed babies should receive 25 to 50 milligrams a day of vitamin C in commercial preparation until they are receiving 2 ounces of orange juice daily. It does no harm for breast fed babies to take this too, as this is an extra precaution.

In the United States, pasteurized milk or ready-to-use formulas contain 400 units of vitamin D to the quart, and a can of concentrated prepared formula or evaporated milk contains the same amount. This should be sufficient to prevent rickets in a normal baby.

A breast-fed baby should receive 400 units daily in a commercial preparation. In actual practice most physicians routinely give a 3-vitamin preparation that contains C,D and A to all babies, Whether on breast or bottle .The dropper that comes with the bottle has lines showing 0.3 cc and 0.6 cc. The fluid is drawn up to the line the doctor prescribes and then squirted directly into the baby’s mouth at the beginning of one of the feedings of the day.

If you have no doctor to advise you, give 0.3 cc once a day, winter and summer, starting at 1 month or earlier. In most preparations this gives 200 units of D, 2,000 units of A and 25 milligrams of C. Some doctors prescribed 0.6 cc. You should not go beyond the amount prescribed, since excessive doses of vitamin D can be harmful.