What causes zinc deficiency in babies? Pay attention to these 8 aspects

When the baby has a loss of appetite, is picky about food, and eats randomly, parents should pay attention to whether the child is zinc deficient. At this time, they should take the child to the hospital to check whether the zinc index in the baby's body is normal. If it is abnormal, zinc should be supplemented in time, otherwise it will affect the baby's health.

What causes zinc deficiency in babies?

1. Excessive sweating: As mentioned above, the weather is hot in summer and the temperature is very high. Babies sweat a lot, and when the sweat flows out, it will also take away the zinc in the baby's body.

2. Don’t like to eat: In summer, even adults will suffer from anorexia, not to mention babies? In the hot summer, people have poor appetite. Adults can still control it rationally, but babies can only vomit as much as they eat. If they don’t eat, they can’t meet the intake of zinc, resulting in a decrease in zinc in the body.

3. Long-term diarrhea: If the baby has diarrhea for a long time, it is easy to reduce zinc absorption and increase intestinal zinc loss, which leads to zinc deficiency in the body. Long-term diarrhea can cause damage to the intestinal mucosa, and zinc deficiency causes it to recover slowly, which leads to low immune function and repeated diarrhea. If this happens, zinc supplementation can be considered as appropriate.

4. Low immunity: In summer, babies are prone to digestive diseases, among which diarrhea is the most common. Diarrhea will cause the loss of zinc in the body, and digestive disorders will hinder the absorption of zinc. As a result, the zinc content in the body is very low.

5. Zinc deficiency during pregnancy: When the baby is still in the womb, all nutrients are absorbed by the mother. If the mother does not supplement zinc intake in time during pregnancy, the baby will not absorb enough zinc at the beginning.

6. Picky eating: Being picky about eating is very bad and it is a problem for many babies. It will lead to nutritional deviation and unbalanced intake of elements needed by the body. The baby's picky eating habits will also affect the intake of zinc. Therefore, vegetarians are more likely to be zinc deficient. In addition, after 6 months, the baby is mainly fed with rice noodles, white porridge, and vegetables for a long time. If eggs, meat, etc. are not added in time, it will lead to insufficient zinc intake, which is generally more common after 1 year old.

7. Not eating meat: We all know that meat contains more zinc than vegetables, but some babies don’t like to eat meat, which also causes zinc deficiency in babies. In addition, grains are processed through different procedures, and the zinc content will also be lost, which is also the reason for low zinc intake.

8. No breast milk: Some mothers still have no milk after giving birth, and have no choice but to use cow's milk instead. Although the zinc content of cow's milk and breast milk is similar, the absorption rate of zinc in cow's milk is much lower than that of breast milk, so babies fed with cow's milk are prone to zinc deficiency.

What to do if your baby is zinc deficient

Zinc deficiency in babies will directly affect their growth and development. Babies with zinc deficiency are weak and sickly, and have picky eating habits and hyperactivity, which often makes parents distressed. In fact, there are many ways to supplement zinc. Parents only need to supplement their babies in time, and the above adverse symptoms can be effectively improved. What should I do if my baby is zinc deficient? How to give my baby zinc supplements effectively?

1. Adhere to breastfeeding

If you want your baby to not be deficient in zinc, breastfeeding is recommended. The baby should be breastfed for at least 3 months, and then gradually switched to cow's milk or other milk substitutes. The absorption rate of zinc in breast milk is high, up to 62%. In particular, colostrum contains high zinc, with an average concentration of 4 to 7 times that of serum zinc.

2. Add zinc-containing complementary foods

After the baby reaches 4-6 months old, complementary foods can be added according to the needs and actual situation. At this time, if the baby is zinc deficient, some complementary foods rich in zinc can be added. The zinc content of animal foods is higher than that of plant foods. Artificially fed babies can add easily absorbed complementary foods from 4 months old, such as lean minced meat, egg yolks, fish paste, animal liver, oysters, peanut rice flour, walnut kernel powder, etc.

3. Zinc supplement products

If the baby is obviously zinc deficient, he or she can take zinc supplement products under the guidance of a doctor. For zinc supplementation, you can choose the third-generation zinc protein zinc, which supplements protein zinc. The zinc element uses protein as a carrier, has high activity, is very conducive to gastrointestinal absorption, and does not cause any gastrointestinal irritation. In contrast, organic zinc and inorganic zinc such as zinc gluconate and zinc sulfate are all compounds, so they are not recommended for children to take for a long time.

4. Maintain a balanced diet

Children should be educated from an early age to develop the good habit of not being picky eaters and not being partial to partiality, and should pay attention to a reasonable and balanced diet structure, with a mix of coarse and fine grains. In this way, children will generally not be zinc deficient. They should also be careful not to eat too much sweets, so as not to affect the absorption of zinc.

The dangers of zinc deficiency

It mainly manifests itself in the following two aspects:

1. Zinc deficiency in the body will reduce the number of brain cells, especially during the fetal period to 3 years old. If zinc is deficient, it will affect the development of the brain. According to relevant nutritional surveys, zinc deficiency is one of the important causes of congenital retardation in some children after excluding genetic factors.

2. Zinc deficiency can also reduce immune function and lead to frequent illnesses, because zinc has a great impact on the bactericidal ability of phagocytes. Studies have shown that among children with repeated respiratory infections, the proportion of zinc-deficient babies is significantly higher than that of normal babies. Clinically, it has been found that wounds of injured children heal slowly when they are zinc-deficient.

What are the dangers of excessive zinc supplementation for babies?

Of course, it is not the case that the more zinc a baby takes, the better. Zinc supplementation must be done in moderation, otherwise it may cause zinc poisoning and endanger the baby's health. Zinc poisoning causes nausea and vomiting. Digestive symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea. This is because zinc is easily converted into zinc chloride in gastric juice. Zinc chloride is highly corrosive to the stomach and can cause congestion, edema, and erosion of the gastric mucosa, and even cause rupture and bleeding of gastric blood vessels.

When the daily intake of zinc exceeds 45 mg, it may hinder the baby's absorption of divalent ions such as iron and copper, which will not only cause anemia, but also increase cholesterol and uric acid in the body, as well as incomplete cross-linking between myocardial elastin molecules, increasing the risk of coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction.

In addition, expectant mothers also need to prevent zinc poisoning. Zinc poisoning can cause neuronal damage; glial cell damage; excessive maternal zinc content can cause fetal neural tube defects; excessive blood zinc can inhibit the phagocytic function and bactericidal ability of white blood cells, reduce the body's resistance, and make it easy to be invaded by pathogenic bacteria.

Therefore, as mentioned above, if you choose to use medicine to supplement zinc for your baby, you must go through a hospital examination. Only when the baby is diagnosed with obvious zinc deficiency can you give him zinc sulfate syrup or zinc gluconate and other preparations under the guidance of a doctor. The general medication time limit should not exceed 2-4 months, and the medication should be stopped in time after the reexamination is normal. Be careful that the effective dose of zinc is very small from the toxic dose. Improper use can easily lead to overdose, inducing a series of symptoms such as iron deficiency, copper deficiency, and anemia.