Cod liver oil contains vitamin A and vitamin D, which are not only needed for human growth and development, but also a good medicine to prevent night blindness, dry eye disease, rickets and osteomalacia. Some parents take cod liver oil as a nutritional tonic and give their children a large amount of it for a long time, thinking that it doesn't matter if they eat more. In fact, cod liver oil, like other nutritional products, has pros and cons.
Long-term consumption of large amounts of cod liver oil can easily cause vitamin A and vitamin D poisoning, especially concentrated cod liver oil. In the prevention and treatment of rickets, people often calculate the dosage based on the content of vitamin D, and ignore the content of vitamin A, and the content of vitamin A in cod liver oil is 10 times that of vitamin D, resulting in vitamin A poisoning.
Vitamin A toxicity is highest in children aged 6 months to 3 years. Children can cause acute poisoning if they take more than 300,000 units of vitamin A at a time, and chronic poisoning can be caused by taking 50,000~100,000 units of vitamin A every day, or taking it for several weeks or months for a long time. Depending on the degree of poisoning, it can be characterized by fatigue, fatigue, low-grade fever, excessive sweating, lack of appetite, dry skin, rash, itchy skin, peeling, dry hair, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, etc.
The dose of vitamin D toxicity varies greatly among individuals, especially children who are sensitive to vitamin D, even taking 4000 units per day for 1~3 months will be poisoned, manifested as lack of appetite, crying, irritability, low-grade fever, excessive sweating, lack of energy, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation; Seriously affect the child's physical development and health.
If your child is found to be poisoned with cod liver oil, stop taking it immediately. Acute poisoning symptoms can disappear quickly and recover after 1.5~2 days of drug withdrawal, and chronic poisoning symptoms can gradually disappear after 1 or 2 weeks. But it will take half a year to fully return to normal.
Therefore, children who can eat normally should not eat a large amount of cod liver oil for a long time, and if they need to treat rickets, they should use simple vitamin D preparations under the guidance of doctors and pharmacists.
Content Sources:
People's Medical Publishing House published "Understanding Doctors: Effective Communication between Doctors and Patients on Drug Use"
Authors:
Yang Jizhang, chief pharmacist and professor of the First Hospital of Hebei Medical University
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