NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Getting adequate amounts of vitamin A during pregnancy may reduce the risk of having a child with cleft palate, Norwegian researchers report. Infants born to women who consumed the most vitamin A were half as likely to have a cleft palate as children whose mothers consumed the least, Anne Marte W. Johansen of the University of Oslo and her colleagues found. "This supports other evidence that a healthy and varied diet during pregnancy is important," Johansen told Reuters Health. Both excessive and deficient vitamin A intake have been tied to "a wide range of malformations" in humans and animals, Johansen noted. In humans, she added, the level at which vitamin A may have adverse effects on fetuses is not known, but "it is generally agreed that an intake up to three milligrams per day is safe." Norwegians have a fairly high intake of vitamin A, Johansen and her team note in the American Journal of Epidemiology, while the incidence of cleft lips and/or cleft palates among Norwegian babies is relatively high, they add.