During pregnancy, he was vegetarian and began to give the baby porridge at three months, resulting in malnutrition and short development. The doctor recommended growth hormone, but the mother was reluctant to take it.
This kind of parenting, which sounds like a rise in blood pressure, appeared in a popular science documentary issued by the Shenzhen Health Commission on May 24. In the video, a mother brings her 6-year-old and 3-month-old child to the doctor, saying that her child was told during the physical examination that her height development was delayed.
The doctor measured that the child's height was only 102cm, while the average height of a normal child of the same age was 119cm, and he was 17cm behind the average height. The doctor said that the height had reached "shortness", even "shorter than short". According to this estimate, the child's future height may only be about 150cm.
The picture comes from the video screenshot of Shenzhen Health Commission Station B
After further questioning, the doctor discovered the cause of the child's abnormal height development.
It turned out that the mother ate more vegetarian when she was pregnant, resulting in insufficient nutrition for the child, and only 4 pounds and 8 taels when she was born; Subsequently, when the child was 3 months old, the mother reduced the child's breast milk intake because of "eating breast milk on fire", and instead fed him rice porridge and other foods. In addition, the in-laws' family is mainly vegetarian, and the children have a light diet since childhood, and rarely eat meat.
After hearing this, the doctor immediately advised the mother to go back to the local area to give the child growth hormone, so that he could grow 3 or 4 centimeters per year to compensate for the growth retardation caused by malnutrition.
But the child's mother fell into hesitation after listening to it, saying that she "didn't want to fight", because the message she usually heard was to avoid hormones in her diet, so she felt that hitting hormones was not conducive to the child's health.
Seeing this, the doctor explained that playing hormones is a last resort, because the child's height lags too far behind his peers, and he can only rely on hormones to promote growth and close the gap. He then said that parents should go back and think about it, but it was recommended not to wait until the child was thirteen or fourteen years old to make a decision.
Is pregnancy suitable for vegetarianism?
Fan Zhihong, associate professor of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the College of Food Science of China Agricultural University, said in his blog that although vegetarian food has many benefits, it is not necessarily suitable for everyone, and pregnant women are not recommended to eat vegetarian.
Image from the web
Fan Zhihong explained that pregnant women are in a period of vigorous metabolism and rapid cell growth, and have a large demand for nutrients, but some nutrients necessary for human growth and development, such as vitamin B12 and vitamin D, are almost exclusively found in foods of animal origin; In addition, although various vegetarian diets also contain iron and zinc, their state of existence is different from that of iron and zinc from animal sources, and often contain a variety of "anti-nutritional factors" (that is, substances that hinder the absorption of nutrients), so that these trace elements are not easy for the human body to absorb and utilize.
Therefore, for young children and pregnant women, people who have a very strong demand for iron, zinc and other nutrients, as well as people with anemia and zinc deficiency symptoms, if you do not supplement additional nutrients after eating vegan, it may lead to more serious diseases. Pregnant women who lack these trace elements are more likely to affect their baby's development.
Shanghai First Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital said that for vegetarians, if they can accept it, they can eat some meat dishes after pregnancy; If you don't like it, there is no need to force yourself to eat meat, but the diet structure still needs to be adjusted appropriately. Throughout pregnancy, if a balanced diet can be adjusted, the only thing vegetarians need to supplement is vitamin B12.
Vitamin B12 is only found in animal foods, and if you are vegetarian for a long time and do not eat any meat dishes, you may be deficient in vitamin B12. Vitamin B12, also known as the "nutritional nerve" vitamin, can cause low energy, depression, memory loss, numbness, nervousness, paranoia, and a variety of cognitive dysfunction if severely deficient. Daily intake of sufficient milk or dairy products basically does not occur vitamin B12 deficiency; If you only eat eggs and do not eat milk or dairy products, then vitamin B12 deficiency is still prone to occur.
Criteria for judging growth retardation and dietary recommendations for children and adolescents
The National Health Commission issued the Guidelines for Diet for Developmental Delay in Children and Adolescents (2023 Edition), which provides us with detailed growth retardation judgment criteria and dietary recommendations.
Growth retardation is defined as: due to insufficient dietary intake of protein or energy, vitamins, minerals, etc., resulting in height below the height for age threshold range of screening standards, which is long-term malnutrition.
Failure self-test table:
The diet of each meal should include 3 or more types of foods such as cereals, fruits and vegetables, livestock, poultry, fish eggs and soybeans; There are more than 12 types of food per day and more than 25 types per week. (See Table 1)
Based on a balanced diet:
1. Appropriately increase lean meat, aquatic products, poultry, eggs, soybeans and other foods rich in high-quality protein.
2. Eat calcium-rich foods such as milk and dairy products every day, and pay attention to supplementing foods rich in vitamin D; Children aged 2~5 years old drink 350~500ml of milk every day; 6~17 years old should ingest more than 300ml of liquid milk or equivalent dairy products per day.
3. Eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits.
4. At the same time, increase animal liver, animal blood and other iron-rich foods.
5. The daily diet should also meet the body's needs for zinc, iodine, vitamin A, vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin C and other micronutrients.
I hope that pregnant women and parents will eat a scientific and reasonable diet, raise children scientifically, and promote the healthy growth of their children.
Source: Zhengguan News comprehensively collated the Shenzhen Health Commission's "Shining Pediatrician", Shanghai First Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital WeChat public account, Northwest Women and Children's Hospital Children's Health Department WeChat public account
Editor: Huang Zhihang