What is Vitamin A?

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble micronutrient that is essential for physical development and helps strengthen the immune system to protect the body against infections.

How does Vitamin A affect children?

Growth: Participates in the process of cell division to help children grow healthy and develop normally.
Vision: Vitamin A plays a role in the process of seeing, especially at night.
Epithelial protection: Vitamin A protects the integrity of the skin, eye mucosa, tracheal mucosa, small intestine and excretory glands.
Immunity: Vitamin A enhances the body’s immune system, increasing resistance to infectious diseases, tetanus, tuberculosis, measles, etc.

Where is Vitamin A found?

Breast milk, especially colostrum, is rich in vitamin A. Therefore, exclusively breastfed babies do not need high doses of vitamin A supplements in the first 6 months of life.
Foods of animal origin such as liver, meat, fish, eggs, milk, etc.
Foods of plant origin, green, yellow and dark red vegetables and fruits such as spinach, amaranth, Malabar spinach, jute, Malabar spinach, broccoli, carrots, pumpkin, mango, papaya, gac fruit, etc.
Because vitamin A is fat-soluble, a diet rich in fat will help absorb vitamin A well.

What causes vitamin A deficiency in children?

Children are not breastfed.
Children’s diets do not provide enough vitamin A and fat.
Children often suffer from respiratory infections, recurrent diarrhea, measles, parasitic infections, etc.
Children are severely malnourished.

What can be done to prevent vitamin A deficiency in children?

To prevent vitamin A deficiency, infants and young children should be breastfed because breast milk is rich in vitamin A, especially colostrum. Mothers also need to take high doses of vitamin A (200,000 IU) immediately after birth to ensure that breast milk has enough vitamin A for their children.
The diet should include enough foods rich in vitamin A. In addition to using foods rich in vitamin A, it should be accompanied by a diet with enough fat in the diet for vitamin A to be easily absorbed.
Ensure environmental hygiene, prevent infection, and deworm.
Supplement high doses of vitamin A. Children aged 6-36 months must be supplemented with high doses of vitamin A every 6 months (on June 1-2 and December 1-2) at vitamin A drinking points. Children under 5 years old who are at risk of vitamin A deficiency such as malnourished children, children with measles, or recurrent infections, prolonged diarrhea… also need to take high doses of vitamin A.
Children aged 6-12 months: take 100,000 units.
Children over 12-36 months: take 200,000 units.
In case the child is about to be 6 months old or over 3 years old, it is necessary to consult a doctor before giving it.
Children who are sick, have just been vaccinated or are about to be vaccinated can also take high doses of vitamin A.

There are no dangerous side effects when supplementing high doses of vitamin A for children. Many parents often worry about side effects when hearing the words ‘high dose’, fearing that there will be excess vitamin A in the child’s body. However, high doses of vitamin A rarely cause dangerous side effects, except for some rare symptoms such as vomiting, loose stools or bulging fontanelles in children under 1 year old (these reactions will subside after 1-2 days).