Introduction Children with cerebral palsy often develop osteopenia and rickets due to dietary deficiencies, lack of sun exposure, and sedentary lifestyle. Their bone mineral density gets drastically diminished. Therefore this study was done in order to sensitize practicing pediatricians for routine supplementation of vitamin D in cerebral palsy even beyond infancy. Material and methods This is a Case control study. There were 50 cases of cerebral palsy aged 1-5 years qualifying the inclusion criteria (categorized as group 1) matched with normal children of same age and sex were randomly selected as control groups (categorized as group 2) after informed consent. Results The prevalence of decreased vitamin D in patients with CP was 67% in cases as compared to 42% in control. Whereas the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in study group was 21% and insufficiency was 46%. In the control group, vitamin D deficiency amounted to 4%, while insufficiency amounted to 38%. In both populations, the prevalence of insufficiency was more frequent than deficiency. The prevalence of decreased vitamin D in cases was 67% which was statistically significant, while in the control group, decreased vitamin D levels amounted to 42%. Conclusion Hypovitaminosis D is very common in cerebral palsy and represents latent stage of vitamin D deficiency.Hence there is growing need for routine supplementation of vitamin D in cerebral palsy even beyond infancy.

Cerebral Palsy, Vitamin D, deficiency, supplementation