We still don't know that our children need vitamin D daily: a study of parents' understanding of vitamin D requirements in children aged 0-2 years.

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency has been highlighted as a serious public health problem in the United Kingdom. One in four toddlers are not achieving the recommended intake for their healthy development. This study uses quantitative and qualitative methods to explore parents' perceptions, awareness and behaviours around vitamin D intake, and the acceptability of and factors affecting purchasing of food and drink fortified with Vitamin D in children aged 0-2 years old. METHODS: One hundred and ninety-four parents completed an online questionnaire, advertised to parents with one child aged up to 2 years on popular social media websites. The majority of participants were mothers, White-British ethnic background, aged 25-44 years. Participants provided an email address if they wanted to be contacted about the focus groups. Recruitment posters advertising the focus groups were placed in community centres. Eighteen participated in 5 focus groups (13 parents), and 5 individual interviews. A thematic analysis methodology was applied. RESULTS: Fifty-seven percent (n = 110) of parents reported receiving information about vitamin D during pregnancy and 52% (n = 100) after the birth of their child. Parents reported a low level of satisfaction with vitamin D information: many thought it was limited and recommendations on supplements were unclear. Parents wanted more information about vitamin D requirements for their child (80%, n = 153 out of 192 respondents, 2 non-response), about vitamin D and breastfeeding (56%, n = 108) and vitamin D and pregnancy (49%, n = 94). The recommendations were for simpler, easier to read, with specific and clearer guidelines; delivered regularly during routine appointments, at timely stages throughout pregnancy and after the birth. 23% (n = 45, out of 194 respondents) of parents did not know why vitamin D is important for health. Only 26% (n = 49, out of 192 respondents) of parents reported giving their youngest child a vitamin D supplement on most days of the week. The majority of parents (interview/focus group) wanted more information about foods/drinks fortified with vitamin D. CONCLUSION: Parents were generally not aware of the importance of vitamin D, dietary requirements including supplementation and the availability of vitamin D fortified foods. Major improvements are required for the effective promotion of vitamin D information to parents

News Media Analysis of Carbon Capture and Storage and Biomass: Perceptions and Possibilities

In the US, carbon capture and storage (CCS) has received most of its attention when coupled with the fossil fuel industry as a mitigation strategy for climate change. CCS, which is constituted as a broad suite of capture and sequestration technologies and techniques, does not preclude coupling with other energy industries such as bioenergy (bioenergy and CCS or BECCS). In this paper, we examined news media coverage of CCS and biomass individually in locations throughout the US where these technologies are being explored to determine how they are perceived and what possibilities lay in their coupling for climate change mitigation. From our analyses, we found that individually, both CCS and biomass are perceived generally as beneficial for energy development by the news media, though they are not often mentioned in combination. Combined references do, however, speak to their value for climate change mitigation and as an alternative to fossil fuels