How to Feed Your Child Enough Vitamin A

Carrot-munching Bugs Bunny has the right idea. "Wabbits" and people need vitamin A. It's easy to feed your child enough by serving orange fruits and vegetables several times a week.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Apricots
• Broccoli
• Cantaloupes
• Carrots
• Mangoes
• Sweet Potatoes

1. Chop dried apricots into your child's breakfast cereal. Five dried halves contain 1260 International Units (IU) of vitamin A.
2. Pack carrot sticks into lunchboxes, along with hummus or low-fat salad dressing to dip them into. One carrot has a hefty 20,000 IU.
3. Slice up cantaloupe for an after-school snack. One cup has 5158 IU.
4. Enjoy baked sweet potatoes topped with cinnamon. Half a sweet potato boasts 12,440 IU.
5. Stir-fry broccoli with olive oil and garlic. One-half cup of broccoli florets has 1100 IU of vitamin A.
6. Toss sliced mango into your spinach salad. The mango has 8060 IU, and spinach offers 1880 IU per half-cup.
7. Offer tangerines for dessert. Just one has 773 IU.

Tips & Warnings

• The Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for vitamin A are: infants 0 to 1 year, 1875 IU; children 1 to 3, 2000 IU; children 4 to 6, 2500 IU; children 7 to 10, 3500 IU.
• Good sources of vitamin A include liver, yellow and orange fruits and vegetables, and leafy green vegetables.
• The vitamin is known for preventing night blindness, but vitamin A is hard at work on other body functions too. It helps maintain healthy skin, immunity and is vital for children's bone growth.
• If your child refuses sweet potatoes or spinach, don't worry. One meal or one day will not make or break a good diet. Just make sure you serve plenty of vitamin-A-rich foods and look at your child's intake over three to five days.
• High doses of vitamin A from supplements can be toxic. Vitamin A from food is not toxic.