Dear Hatty, I put your question to Zita Weise Prinzo and Andre Briend at WHO and they sent me this reply, which I am posting word for word (and thanks to them both for this): For the treatment of severely malnourished pregnant and lactating women, we suggest to follow the standard treatment for adults as mentioned in the WHO manual "Management of severe malnutrition: a manual for physicians and other senior health workers (pg 37): http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/severemalnutrition/9241545119/en/index.html Possible tetrogenetic effects of high doses of vitamin A can be a problem early in pregnancy, and would, therefore also be a concern for lactating women who may become pregnant. The current recommendation is for women who are or who might become pregnant to limit their total daily vitamin A intake to a maximum of 3000mg RE (10'000IU) to minimize risk of fetal toxicity. See pg 33 of document Vitamin and Mineral Requirements in Human Nutrition: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/9241546123.pdf We did a quick calculation based on amounts of vitamin A in F75 and F100 and volume of therapeutic milk recommended daily for the treatment of malnourished adults (initial phase of treatment). Since the recommended intake of therapeutic milk is given per kg body weight, we did the calculations for women weighing 40 kg and 50 kg. The amount of vitamin A in F75 recommended for a severely malnourished woman who is 50 kg reaches the upper recommended limit of 10'000 IU. Amounts of vitamin A present in F100 and RUTF are on the higher range of what is considered as safe (if total calorie intake is from F100 or RUTF alone). The recommendation would, therefore, be for malnourished pregnant and lactating women to diversify their diets during rehabilitation and include a product such as RUTF only as a supplement. Hope this clarifies some of the points raised. Just for your information, there are plans to revise the upper limits of vitamin A some time in the near future.