The role of vitamin A in child growth, development and survival.

Vitamin A is essential for growth, development and survival. For children in deprived settings an adequate vitamin A status may be more critical to survival protection than to growth and development. During infancy breast milk from malnourished mothers is protective against the development of xerophthalmia; it needs to be complemented after six months by other dietary sources of vitamin A to provide full health protection. Correcting the low vitamin A content of breast milk from malnourished mothers within the first four weeks of delivery by a high dose oral vitamin A supplement can be an effective short-term preventive strategy while efforts are made to improve the dietary intake for the long-term solution.