Normal and Therapeutic Nutrition

Normal and Therapeutic Nutrition 3(2+1)

Lesson 14:Nutritional and Food Requirements for Preschool Children

Vitamin A Deficiency

Epidemiology:

Age:

• Rare in infancy
• Highly prevalent in preschool & school children (1-3 yrs)

Socioeconomic factors:

• Low-income group
• Nutritional deficient mothers
• Food fads and fallacies, eg. colostrum/papaya/green leafy vegetables are avoided
• Poor families cannot afford animal meat (rich in preformed vitamin A)

Aetiology:

• Inadequate dietary intake of vitamin A or its precursor (?-carotene)
• Vitamin A deficient diets consumed by pregnant and lactating women and off spring born with poor stores of vitamin A.

Symptoms:

Deficiency symptoms show up after the liver reserves of vitamin A has been depleted.

Symptoms may result from

Low dietary intakes Interference in absorption and storage Interference in conversion of ?-carotene to vitamin A.

Clinical signs:

• Night blindness
• Conjunctival Xerosis
• Bitot’s spot
• Corneal xerosis
• Corneal ulceration/keratomalacia
• Corneal scar
• Xerophthalmic fundus
• Increased susceptibility to infection

Treatment:

• Oral dose of vitamin A. Prophylactic dose of 2 lakh IU of vitamin A once in 6 months upto 6 years.
• Intramuscular injection
• Hospital admission if medical emergency

Prevention:

• Nutrition education
• Horticultural interventions including kitchen gardening
• Nutrient supplementation
• Prevention of infection
• Selective fortification