There is a reason why you might remember grandma’s eat your carrots advice! Vitamin A is really a very important vitamin for both you and your child. There is more to vitamin A than carrots though! That is why I thought of researching this topic from a variety of sources and writing about it in a simple Q&A format. Let me know how you like it! Feel free to share your ideas, opinions and unique insight on this subject.
What is vitamin A?
Vitamin A is a general name for a class of nutrients which are important for our health, particularly eye health. Chemically, they are related to a substance called retinol. Most vitamin A supplements are formulated to have a certain form of retinol, for example retinyl palmitate or retinyl acetate. These compounds are soluble in fat. They are stored in the liver when taken from diet or supplements.
You might have heard that carrots are a good source of vitamin A. Well, that is only partly true. Carrots in fact contain a compound called beta-carotene, which is what gives the orange color. Beta-carotene is not vitamin A, but a provitamin A; that is, it is converted to vitamin A when it is absorbed in our intestines.
Why does my child need it?
Vitamin A is very important for a growing child. According to the 2nd edition of the PDR for Nutritional Supplements, vitamin A is critical for healthy vision and its deficiency is known to cause night blindness. It is also important for healthy skin, bone development, brain development and development of blood cells. It also supports proper functioning of our immune system.
How much vitamin A should my child be getting?
What are good sources of vitamin A?
In general, the daily recommended amount of vitamin A is 5000 IU (IU means International Units). For infants, however, the FDA has recommended a daily amount of 1500 IU. And for toddlers less than 4 years old, the recommendation is 2500 IU.
Since breastmilk is one of the best sources of vitamin A, the FDA recommends a daily amount of 8000 IU for pregnant and nursing women.
Now, if you are using a supplement, it is easy to keep track of the IU’s. But what if you are relying on fruits, veggies and other dietary sources of vitamin A? Here are a few guidelines for you (ref: Wikipedia.org):
- One serving of milk (1 cup) typically has 10% of the recommended daily amount (RDA)
- 1 hard-boiled egg (yolk) has about 10% of the RDA
- 100 g of raw carrots will provide close to 100% of the RDA
- 100 g of sweet potato will deliver about 80% of the RDA
- 100 g of spinach has about 50%, collard greens about 40%, kale about 80%, pumpkin about 40% of the RDA
- Cantaloupe, apricot, papaya, mango etc have lower amounts, but they are a good, diverse source of vitamins and minerals
- Liver (beef, pork, turkey, chicken, fish) is a very rich source of vitamin A; 100 g provides over 700% of the RDA!
If you are using a supplement, be careful not to exceed the recommended dose and frequency. Also, select a brand known for using high purity ingredients. Check out my review of some of the popular kids brands of multivitamins.
What happens if my child does not get enough vitamin A?
When vitamin A rich foods are missing from your child’s diet over a long period of time, and you are not using any supplements, there is a possibility that your child may develop vitamin A deficiency. In case of certain medical conditions such as cystic fibrosis, Whipple’s disease, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, pancreatic disease and liver disease, there may be a problem with absorption of not only vitamin A from food but also other essential nutrients. Chances are, you are already consulting with a doctor if you are in this situation. If not, you should talk to your doctor about it as soon as possible.
In the rare case (at least in the developed countries), if your child does not get enough vitamin A and develops a deficiency, it can lead to dry eye and vision problems including night blindness. The range of vision problems associated with vitamin A deficiency is called xerophthalmia (xeros means dryness, ophthalmia means of the eye). It can make your child more prone to infections and compromise his immune system. Under extreme conditions, it can also slow down the child’s growth.
Should I be concerned about vitamin A deficiency?
Since vitamin A is stored in the liver, you do not need to worry about it on a day-to-day basis as long as your child is getting a balanced diet on average which includes a nice blend of fruits, veggies, dairy and meat products. In most of the developed countries, vitamin A deficiency is not a problem.
Having said that, clinical vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a big problem in poor countries of Africa and Asia according to this World Health Organization (WHO) report. Unicef’s childinfo.org has a nice summary of the global vitamin A deficiency problem, especially among children, which indicates that over 5 million children of pre-school age could have clinical VAD. And as many as 190 million pre-school age children and 19 million pregnant or nursing women do not have enough vitamin A in their daily diet, which puts them at a very high risk of VAD. This should be troubling to us even though it may not affect us directly in the developed world.
What do you think? What changes, if any, would you consider making to your child’s diet so she gets enough vitamin A? Do you have recipes that use vitamin A rich ingredients? I would love to hear from you!
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What about us who worry of A toxicity? I don’t intentionally supplement A, but it’s in my cod liver oil. I eat a lot of A containing green veggies; your list above contains many staples in my diet.
Good follow up article might be risks of A toxicity.
I have finally convinced my kids to eat raw carrots. On the package it says that one package is 90 % of an adults daily allowance of vitamin A, so I know it’s plenty for them.
This was an interesting article. I know that when I was pregnant I was worried about getting too much Vitamin A.
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