VITAMIN D is important and as well as sunshine, getting some from a balanced diet can help.

Vitamin D is also found in a small number of foods.

Sources include:

- oily fish – such as salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel

- red meat

- liver (avoid liver if you are pregnant)

- egg yolks

- fortified foods – such as some fat spreads and breakfast cereals.

Nicola Storey, head of nutrition and dietetics at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Vitamin D helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body. These nutrients are needed to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy.”

A lack of vitamin D can lead to bone deformities such as rickets in children, and bone pain caused by a condition called osteomalacia in adults.

Government advice is that everyone should consider taking a daily vitamin D supplement during the autumn and winter.

How much vitamin D do I need?

From about late March/early April to the end of September, the majority of people should be able to make all the vitamin D they need from sunlight on their skin.

Children from the age of 1 year and adults need 10 micrograms (mcg) of vitamin D a day. This includes pregnant and breastfeeding women and people at risk of vitamin D deficiency.

Babies up to the age of 1 year need 8.5 to 10 micrograms of vitamin D a day.

A microgram (mcg) is 1,000 times smaller than a milligram (mg). The word microgram is sometimes written with the Greek symbol μ followed by the letter g (μg).

Sometimes the amount of vitamin D is expressed as International Units (IU). 1 microgram of vitamin D is equal to 40 IU. So 10 micrograms of vitamin D is equal to 400 IU.

Advice for infants and young children

The Department of Health and Social Care recommends that babies from birth to 1 year of age should have a daily supplement containing 8.5 to 10 micrograms of vitamin D throughout the year if they are:

- Breastfeed

- Formula-fed and having less than 500ml (about a pint) of infant formula a day, as infant formula is already fortified with vitamin D.

- Children aged 1 to 4 years old should be given a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D throughout the year.

You can buy vitamin D supplements or vitamin drops containing vitamin D (for under 5s) at most pharmacies and supermarkets.

Women and children who qualify for the Healthy Start scheme can get free supplements containing vitamin D.