Don't Underestimate! The Impact of Vitamin A Deficiency on Babies

Not only adults, but babies also need vitamin intake from an early age. The intake of vitamins that a newborn baby can get can be obtained from the breast milk that Mother gives him.

Read: What is Vitamin A, its Benefits and Food Sources

After entering the age of six months and over, the baby's vitamin intake or nutrition is more complex than the previous age. That is why it can be started by giving complementary foods to breast milk.

Not only complementary foods, you also need to pay attention to other vitamins that are needed in the little one's body. One of them is by consuming vitamin A which has good benefits for growth and development.

So, even babies should not be deficient in vitamin A. However, it should not be too excessive, which can actually endanger the health of the little one later.

So, what if the baby lacks vitamin A? What are the effects of vitamin A deficiency on babies? Here we have summarized it from various sources.

The Impact of Vitamin A Deficiency on Babies

1. Growth is prone to stunting

In the upload shared by dr. Andreas, M.Ked(Ped), Sp.A, on his personal Instagram, mentioned how the impact will occur on babies if there is a lack of vitamin A.

One of the impacts that can occur is the growth of the little one who is vulnerable to being stunted. This is because children who are deficient in vitamin A are more at risk of developing anemia due to a lack of iron.

When a baby is deficient in iron, his growth and development will be disrupted. So, overall vitamin A deficiency will interfere with the growth and development process of your child from infancy.

2. Disorders and disorders of the eye

The next impact described by dr. Andreas, if the baby is deficient in vitamin A, is experiencing disorders and abnormalities in his eyes. In the caption he wrote, it was stated that a lack of vitamin A could have an impact on eye organ problems that are easily disturbed.

Read: Vitamin A For Acne: Benefits and How To Use

"Vitamin A deficiency has a negative impact, one of which is the eye organs that are easily disturbed," wrote dr. Andreas.

3. Disturbance to various diseases

Maybe there are still many who think that vitamin A will only affect eye health, even though it turns out that vitamin A has many other benefits for the body.

As for the impact of other vitamin A deficiencies mentioned by dr. Andreas is more at risk of experiencing problems with various diseases, such as ARI, measles, and diarrhea.

Some of these diseases are very easy to attack in toddlers because their body's defense system is not yet perfect. So that toddlers who are deficient in vitamin A are more susceptible to severe infections from the above diseases, even to death.

4. Makss skin drier

Another benefit of vitamin A is that it helps repair skin tissue. Especially in babies who have skin that is much more sensitive than adult skin.

As an important component for skin tissue, vitamin A also helps reduce inflammation if your little one has an injury or infection.

If your little one is deficient in vitamin A for a long time, this will result in drier skin conditions, and will worsen eczema.

Getting to Know Vitamin A Capsules for Babies and Postpartum Mothers

Those were some of the effects of vitamin A deficiency on babies. To prevent babies from being vitamin A deficient, the government is actively running a program of giving vitamin A once every six months for free at the nearest health facility.

This provision has been carried out since 1970 to prevent the fatal effects of vitamin A deficiency on toddlers and children.

Giving vitamin A itself is generally divided into two different capsules that are adjusted to the age of the baby and also the postpartum mother. In his presentation, dr. Andreas also explained the difference between the two widely used vitamin A capsules.

The blue vitamin A capsule with a dose of 1000 IU is only given to children aged 6-11 months. Meanwhile, red vitamin A capsules with a dose of 200,000 IU are only given to children under five and postpartum mothers.

That's the information on the impact of vitamin A deficiency on babies and the types of vitamin A that can be given. From the explanation above, it can be clearly seen how important vitamin A is for the growth and development of your little one.

Hopefully the information above is useful and don't forget to fulfill your little one's vitamin A intake from an early age!