Key words: Breast-milk retinol, dark-green leafy veg- etables, lactation, serum retinol, vitamin A deficiency

Vitamin A deficiency remains a significant health risk in developing countries, affecting infants and children in particular. To counter child malnutrition, mothers are encouraged to breastfeed to ensure that their children receive adequate macroand micronutrients, including vitamin A. However, this assumes that the mother has sufficient vitamin A intake to provide enough vitamin A to her child. This study investigates maternal and infant intakes of locally available foods of high vitamin A content in a rural agricultural community in Kenya. The study aims to establish the community risk for vitamin A deficiency and to assess whether breast milk is adequate to maintain and build retinol reserves of the breastfed infant. The study assesses 62 mother-child pairs and employs several methods to support its objectives, including the Helen Keller International food-frequency survey, maternal and infant anthropometric measurements, and maternal breast-milk and blood samples to determine breast-milk and serum retinol levels. We found that mothers with marginal (< 0.700 μmol/l) serum retinol and breast-milk deficient (< 1.05 μmol/l) in retinol accounted for 45.2% and 77.4%, of our sample, respectively. A significant (p < 0.05) proportion (40.3%) of mothers had breast milk deficient in retinol and marginal levels of serum retinol. The risk of vitamin A deficiency in breastfed infants older than six months was high, because 89.5% of them did not consume foods high in vitamin A content three times weekly. The primary source of vitamin A for infants younger than six months was breast-milk deficient in retinol vitamin A. This study suggests that in this rural community, breastfed infants may not receive appropriate foods with high vitamin A content and that although exclusive breastfeeding is advocated, most breast milk is deficient in retinol, further heightening the risk of vitamin A deficiency.