Getting adequate amounts of vitamin A during pregnancy may reduce the risk of having a child with cleft palate. Cleft palate is a congenital deformity caused by abnormal facial development during gestation. Excessive and deficient vitamin A intake has been tied to a wide range of malformations in humans and animals. To investigate the relationship between the intake of vitamin A by pregnant women and orofacial clefts in their children, Norwegian researchers compared 535 women who gave birth to children with a cleft palate only or cleft lip with or without cleft palate and 693 women who delivered children without the defect. It was found that women in the top 25 % for vitamin A consumption were 53% less likely to have a child with cleft palate alone than those in the bottom 25 percent. However, the intake of vitamin A was not related to the risk of cleft lip with or without cleft palate, supporting the theory that the two cleft types have different causes. The researchers cautioned against the excessive intake of vitamin A by pregnant women as it may have adverse effects on the fetus although no increased risk of clefts was found in women who consumed an average of about 3.8 milligrams of vitamin A daily. An intake up to 3 milligrams per day is considered safe.
American Journal of Epidemiology
May 2008