Efect of vitamin A suplementation: a systematic review.
What this study found
Overall, vitamin A megadoses increased maternal serum retinol and breast milk or colostrum retinol in the short term, with the clearest benefit seen when baseline maternal stores were low. A 200,000 IU postpartum dose increased breast milk retinol within the first 24 hours, and one study reported breast milk vitamin A deficiency falling from 55.6% in controls to 16.1% in the supplemented group (P = 0.002). However, effects on infant serum retinol were inconsistent: one trial found no difference after a repeat 200,000 IU dose at 2 weeks, and another reported infant serum retinol of 0.64 ±…
- Study & population
- This systematic review synthesized 8 studies with 10 active intervention arms in postpartum women, and in some studies their infants, with one study evaluating supplementation during pregnancy followed by postpartum assessment.
- Intervention
- Vitamin A supplementation, most commonly as a single 200,000 IU postpartum megadose of retinyl palmitate, was evaluated across included studies; a few trials tested repeat dosing at 2 weeks, two doses within 24 hours, pregnancy supplementation, or higher maternal dosing (400,000 IU) with infant supplementation…
- Key limitation
- The evidence base was small and heterogeneous, with different doses, timing, formulations, and populations across only 8 studies.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
To evaluate the effect of vitamin A supplementation in postpartum infants and women on serum retinol levels and breast milk. The databases Medline, PubMed, Lilacs and SciELO were consulted. The descriptors used were vitamin A, dietary supplement, child, postpartum period, infant and nutrition programs policies. Search found 7432 articles. After elimination of duplicity and application of eligibility criteria, 8 studies remained. All evaluated the effect of vitamin A supplementation on immediate postpartum, five studies used retinyl palmitate supplementation, one with retinyl palmitate and two did not specify the form of supplementation. Six studies evaluated colostrum and two included supplementation of children. It was found that supplementation in the puerperium increases the concentrations of serum retinol and breast milk, however, this result was in the short term and was relevant when the previous concentrations of the mother were low. When maternal serum concentrations are adequate, the retinol content in milk does not change, with little relevance for children. Further studies should be performed to evaluate the effect of megadoses supplementation on serum concentrations of children.