RT Journal A1 SOBEL AE, BESMAN L, KRAMER B T1 VItamin a absorption in the newborn JF American Journal of Diseases of Children JO American Journal of Diseases of Children YR 1949 FD May 1 VO 77 IS 5 SP 576 OP 591 DO 10.1001/archpedi.1949.02030040590002 UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.1949.02030040590002 AB IN 1946 a paper was presented from this laboratory in which it was shown that vitamin A when administered in aqueous mediums is absorbed more readily than vitamin A administered in oil.1 In the course of these investigations, it was observed that in normal infants the absorption of vitamin A, as measured by the vitamin A tolerance test, tends to be low. Moreover, a review of the literature2 indicated that the percentage of fat in the stool is higher in young children than is normally observed in older children.These observations suggested to us that a diminished rate of intestinal absorption of fats in general, and more specifically vitamin A in oil, exists in young children. This phenomenon should be even more pronounced in the newborn. For this reason, our studies, in which we compared the intestinal absorption of vitamin A in aqueous dispersion with that of. the