From 1999 to 2000, the mainland conducted a vitamin A survey of children aged 0-6 years, and the results showed that many children had vitamin A deficiencies, especially in poor rural areas.
Image source: Survey on Vitamin A Deficiency in Children Under Six Years of Age in China
WHO has also estimated that about 1,900 pregnant women and 190 million preschool children worldwide are vitamin A deficient. This phenomenon is mainly concentrated in some countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.
The reason why there is a serious vitamin A deficiency in these places is because of the lack of local intake of eggs, meat, and green leafy vegetables.
Seeing this, many mothers will be anxious, then my children do not like to eat meat, eggs, green leafy vegetables, is it also a lack of vitamin A, do you want to supplement?
This has to be analyzed according to the specific situation, rather than you can make up for it if you want to.
The growth and development and health of the human body require the participation of various nutrients, and there are 13 kinds of essential vitamins, and vitamin A is one of them.
Vitamins are divided into two categories: fat-soluble and water-soluble.
Fat-soluble vitamins are soluble only in fats and organic solvents, not in water. If this type of vitamin is consumed too much, it is concentrated in the body, which will cause a burden on the body and be detrimental to the body. Water-soluble vitamins can be soluble in water, and even if they are excessive, they can be excreted through urine and sweat.
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, so excessive intake will affect physical health.
The role of vitamin A is mainly in these 5 aspects:
1. Maintain visual function, improve the dark adaptability of the eyes at night, can prevent night blindness. We enter the night from day to night, the eyes to adapt to this process from light to dark, if the body vitamin A is insufficient, at night, the light becomes darker, the eyes' ability to adapt to this process is weakened, serious night blindness, can not see things.
2. Maintain the integrity of the skin and mucous membranes, so that the skin will not be keratinized rough and desquamed. When vitamin A is sufficient, it will make the skin more tender and smooth, so that the skin remains in good condition.
3. Maintain and improve immune function. Vitamin A promotes the production of antibodies by immune cells, improves immune function, and keeps the body healthy. If your immunity is low, your baby can easily get sick.
4. Promotes growth and bone development. Vitamin A can promote protein synthesis, which is conducive to bone growth and allows babies to grow tall and grow fast.
5. Vitamin A is an antioxidant that can inhibit the growth of tumors. Data show that the content of vitamin A and β carotene in the blood of cancer patients is relatively low.
What are the symptoms and harms of vitamin A deficiency?
Vitamin A deficiency can cause dry skin, roughness, desquamation, and a decrease in the ability of dark eyes to adapt, which is what we usually call night blindness.
In the past, due to the low standard of living, some children were often seen to have night blindness, but now the standard of living has improved, and the material life is also rich, but there are still many cases of vitamin A deficiency.
Severe vitamin A deficiency can also affect the growth and development of infants and young children, resulting in slow bone development and affecting the child's height.
It will also lead to low immunity, prone to respiratory and digestive tract diseases, and some iron deficiency anemia.
Therefore, we cannot ignore the importance of vitamin A for the baby's good health.
How to supplement vitamin A correctly?
As mentioned earlier, vitamin A has various effects on the human body, and the lack of vitamin A will have a great impact on the growth and development of the baby, so how should vitamin A be supplemented correctly?
There are two ways to supplement vitamin A: food supplements and medicated supplements.
Let's start with food supplements.
The offal in meat foods is rich in vitamin A, such as pork liver, chicken liver, etc.; the vitamin A content of deep-sea fish is also relatively high, such as salmon; and lean meat and eggs are also rich in vitamin A.
In addition to meat, there are some vegetables and fruits that are also rich in vitamin A. Such as dark green vegetables: spinach, lettuce, etc.; orange-yellow vegetables: carrots, pumpkins, etc., as well as fruits cantaloupe, mangoes and so on.
It can usually be supplemented by consuming these foods rich in vitamin A. And in general, as long as the child's diet is balanced, there is no need to take additional vitamin A supplements.
Of course, if the child is seriously picky and partial to eating, you can also supplement vitamin A through supplements, but be sure to supplement under the guidance of a doctor, and the dosage is different for different ages.
This is related to the fear that vitamin A supplementation may be poisoned, which generally does not occur. Because each nutrient has a tolerant maximum intake, poisoning can only occur if it is long above this upper limit.
According to the standard, 0-12 months of baby, the daily upper limit of vitamin A is 2000 IU, 13-36 months of baby, the upper limit is 2333 IU, the daily diet is not the case, unless you give the baby a day to eat a lot of animal liver.