Who needs high-dose vitamin A supplements?

Vitamin A is a growth vitamin, necessary for the development of young children, contributing to strengthening the immune system against infections. In addition, vitamin A also helps children see better and distinguish colors. Some of the uses of vitamin A can be mentioned as:
Growth: Vitamin A is involved in the process of cell division to help children grow healthy and develop normally. Vision: Vitamin A plays an important role in the vision process of the eyes, especially at night. Night blindness prevention. Epithelial protection: vitamin A protects the integrity of the skin, tracheal and eye mucosa, small intestine and excretory glands. Immunity: vitamin A helps strengthen the body's immunity and helps increase resistance to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, tetanus, measles or other bacterial infections,...

In order to prevent vitamin A deficiency, those at risk of vitamin A deficiency need to take high doses of supplements such as:
Postpartum mothers: mothers need to ensure a source of vitamin A to provide their babies after giving birth. Through breast milk helps ensure the development of the baby. You need to take a high dose of vitamin A 200,000 IU. Children 6-36 months old need to take vitamin A tablets twice a year. For children aged 6-11 months, give 100,000 IU capsules each time and 12-36 months old children take 200,000 IU capsules each time. Children under 5 years of age with malnutrition, repeated infections, prolonged diarrhea, measles, etc. are at high risk of vitamin A deficiency and need to be supplemented with high doses of vitamin A. .

High-dose Vitamin A is usually not sold at drugstores but will be provided free of charge in medical facilities. For mothers who give birth to a baby at medical facilities, they will be given 1 tablet with a dose of 200.00 IU to drink. As for children, every year the health sector organizes a nationwide campaign of high-dose vitamin A supplements for children aged 6-36 months and supplements for children under 5 years old who are at risk. vitamin A deficiency. A year, there will be 2 times for children to take vitamin A on June 1-2 and December 1-2 every year, organized by the Ministry of Health for free.

Cases that are not supplemented with high doses of vitamin A include:
Children under 6 months of age: do not take high doses of vitamin A, because the mother after giving birth has been taken and vitamin A will be supplemented through milk mom. Pregnant mothers: Excessive vitamin A supplementation during pregnancy will have the risk of causing teratogenic conditions, birth defects depending on the level of excess vitamin A and the stage of pregnancy. In particular, the risk of fetal malformations increases in the first 60 days after conception. Therefore, pregnant women should only supplement vitamin A through food or multivitamin tablets with ingredients and low vitamin A dosage as directed by the doctor. Absolutely do not arbitrarily take high doses of vitamin A while pregnant. Children who are about to be 6 months old or more than 3 years old should consult a doctor before giving them to children.

High-dose vitamin A capsules are safe and effective to use. However, a very small percentage may have manifestations of undesirable effects, but very rarely. Therefore, after taking a high dose of vitamin A, parents need to monitor the child's condition, if there are only transient symptoms such as abdominal pain, mild headache, it will go away after a few hours without needing to be treated. mind. However, if the side effects are more pronounced such as severe abdominal pain or persistent vomiting or allergic rash, the child should be taken to a medical facility immediately.
In summary, the subjects who need high doses of vitamin A supplements are severely malnourished children, postpartum mothers, children with medical conditions such as measles, recurrent diarrhea,... Supplementing with vitamin A doses High is only an urgent solution to solve dry eye condition causing serious consequences. However, in the long term, parents need to follow a reasonable diet, balance nutrients and adequate vitamin A.
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