Low vitamin A levels have been found in a number of diseases in children. The aim of this study was to examine the vitamin A status in children with asthma and to correlate the changes with severity of disease. Serum levels of vitamin A, retinol‐binding protein (RBP), and albumin were estimated in 35 asthmatic children (24 males) in the age group of 2–12 years (mean 5.89 years) and 29 controls (19 males). Both study and control groups were similar with respect to age, sex, and overall nutritional status. Twenty‐four children in the study group (68.6%) had moderate to severe persistent asthma and eight children had mild persistent asthma. Only three patients suffered from mild intermittent asthma. Vitamin A levels in children with asthma (mean ± SD 22.14 ± 5.38 µg/dl) were found to be significantly lower than their controls (mean ± SD 27.54 ± 4.83 µg/dl) (p = 0.0001). Age, age of onset of asthma, and gender had no correlation with serum vitamin A levels. Low serum vitamin A levels (< 20 µg/dl) were observed four times more commonly in the study group (28.6%) than controls (6.9%). Severity of asthma had a negative correlation with serum vitamin A levels (r = − 0.61, p = 0.0001). Children with severe persistent asthma had markedly low serum vitamin A levels (mean ± SD 13.42 ± 5.19 µg/dl) as compared with mild intermittent asthma (mean ± SD 24.61 ± 2.32 µg/dl). Therapeutic trials are needed to prove whether low vitamin A levels contribute to asthma severity and the clinical utility of vitamin A supplementation in asthmatic children.