| Little bookworm mom
Erbao has often been irritable lately, crying incessantly, and it is very difficult to coax, which makes me very headache. Upset, I told my husband about the child's situation, who knew that he usually did not have children but reminded me: "The baby may be deficient in iron!" His condition was exactly the same as the symptoms I had seen from books about iron deficiency. ”
At this point, I couldn't sit still, so I quickly went to read the book and check the information. This investigation is even more unable to sit still, it turns out that there are so many babies in the mainland who are short of iron.
According to the "2016 Red Book of Iron Deficiency in Infants and Young Children in China", more than half of babies in China have experienced anemia, of which more than 80% are caused by iron deficiency. At the same time, in the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents", it is also pointed out that the incidence of iron deficiency anemia in infants and young children aged 7 to 24 months in mainland China is higher, and the daily iron requirement at this stage is 8 to 10 mg.
The iron obtained through the mother is stored in the baby's body after birth for 6 months. After the baby reaches 6 months, let the baby "eat enough iron" this thing can not be ignored. Baby iron supplementation has a lot of exquisite, today's little bookworm mother to take you to know the iron element and iron supplement related knowledge.
The important role of iron in the human body
What role does iron play in the human body? I learned in the book "Guide to the Whole Process of Feeding Supplementary Feeding for Babies" that iron is the tissue component of hemoglobin in human hemoglobin and is the raw material for hematopoiesis. Its main function is to combine protein and copper to make hemoglobin, which binds to oxygen and transports oxygen to every part of the body for the body to breathe oxidation, provide heat, digest food, and obtain nutrients. Iron can enhance the body's immune system, enhance the baby's immunity, so that the baby grows up healthily.
It can be seen that in the process of baby growth and development, iron plays an indispensable role, and the damage caused by iron deficiency to the early brain development of infants and young children is irreversible.
What is the impact of iron deficiency on your baby?
After reading the book "Complete Feeding Plan for 0-3-year-old Babies", I realized that the impact of iron deficiency on children was so much. What are the specific implications? The main points are as follows:
Decreased appetite: Iron deficiency babies will have a decreased appetite and do not like to eat. Therefore, when the baby does not like to eat, parents should not blame him first, check whether there is iron deficiency.
Decreased resistance: Iron deficiency will lead to a decline in resistance, children love to get sick, so when the baby is often sick, parents should pay attention.
Developmental delay: Long-term severe iron deficiency in babies can lead to physical growth retardation.
Memory loss: Iron deficiency can cause children to have a memory loss, cognitive impairment, and difficulty concentrating.
Affects mood: Iron deficiency can cause children to be irritable and uninterested in the surrounding things. Just as at the beginning of the article, recently my family's second treasure is often irritable, crying, and very difficult to coax, after examination, is caused by iron deficiency.
Affect intelligence: Infants and young children are the critical period of brain development, baby iron deficiency will make intelligence decline, long-term iron deficiency will cause irreversible damage to the nervous system.
When seeing that long-term iron deficiency will affect the baby's intelligence, I believe that many parents are not calm. Whether your baby is iron deficient cannot be judged by superficial symptoms alone. Based on the experience of the mother of the little bookworm, I recommend that parents take their babies to do child protection regularly to keep abreast of their baby's physical condition.
Which babies are prone to iron deficiency?
Babies in early childhood is the fastest growth and development period, blood volume increases rapidly, iron demand is relatively large, so it is easy to appear symptoms of iron deficiency. According to the research data, these babies are prone to iron deficiency, and parents should pay attention to it.
(1) Babies who do not consume enough iron during pregnancy
During pregnancy, the iron in the fetus is completely supplied by the mother, if the baby is premature, multiple, or the mother is not in good health during pregnancy, there is an anemia, then it may lead to iron deficiency after the baby is born.
(2) Babies who do not add complementary foods in time
After 6 months of the baby, the iron from the mother's reserve is almost consumed, if the parents do not add complementary foods to the baby in time and do not give iron fortified food in time, it is easy to cause the baby to lack iron. According to the World Health Organization, infants should start from 6 months of age to add complementary foods to breastfeeding.
(3) Picky eaters, partial eaters
If the baby is picky, partial or improperly matched with food, and the nutrition is unbalanced, it is also prone to iron deficiency. In particular, if you do not like to drink milk, eat eggs, pork liver, lean meat, beef and other foods with high iron content, then the baby is more likely to be deficient in iron.
(4) Poor health of the baby
Babies often have diarrhea or other gastrointestinal disorders, and iron deficiency can also be caused by insufficient iron absorption and excessive loss.
How to make your baby "eat enough iron"?
Iron is not the more the better, according to the Chinese Nutrition Society recommended iron intake, 6 to 12 months of baby need to consume 10 mg of iron per day, 1 to 3 years old baby needs to consume 12 mg of iron per day, you can meet the needs of physical development. To prevent the baby's iron deficiency, we can let the baby "eat enough iron" through the following methods.
Improve diet structure and rational feeding
After 6 months of breastfeeding, it is necessary to add complementary foods in time and choose infant rice flour fortified with iron; for babies who drink formula milk powder, they can replace formula with iron fortified milk powder and infant rice flour with fortified iron. These foods are also high in iron and are a good source of iron supplementation for diets.
After the baby has successfully added complementary foods, parents can appropriately increase iron-rich foods in their daily diet, such as: red meat (lean meat, beef, mutton), animal liver (pig liver, chicken liver), blood products (duck blood, chicken blood, pig blood) and fish, etc. The iron elements in these foods are easily absorbed by the baby.
In addition to meat, vegetables and grains can also play an iron supplement. For example, dark green leafy vegetable foods: spinach, celery, black sesame, black fungus, beans, red dates, glutinous rice are foods with high iron content, vitamin-rich foods, such as fresh fruits, can help the absorption of iron, and daily diets can be arranged in turn.
Recommend several iron-rich recipes: tomato chicken liver puree, spinach pork liver puree, slippery egg beef, spinach pig blood soup, sesame meatballs, sesame pork liver.
Take your baby to exercise to strengthen immunity
In addition to iron supplementation to increase the source of iron, there is also a very important point, that is, to take the baby to do more exercise, enhance immunity, improve the child's spleen and stomach function, to ensure a good digestion and absorption capacity, otherwise even if the child is supplemented with enough iron, the iron deficiency situation will still not improve.
(The picture is from the network, if there is infringement, it must be deleted)