Many babies today have anemia. In fact, it can be said that many babies throughout history have had anemia, but now we know it because it is a condition that worries parents and professionals more, and that is why special attention is given to detecting and treating it.
The most frequent anemia in babies is the iron deficiency, which is the one that appears as a result of a lack: the baby consumes few foods rich in iron. And it is important to detect it because it can affect both appetite level, growth, behavior and even development. That is why it may be important to be aware of what we are telling you today: how to prevent the baby from ending anemia.
Why is iron important?
From the age of six months, when complementary feeding begins, special emphasis is placed on this recommendation: at each meal there is some food rich in iron.
The reason for giving this advice is threefold:
- A baby who only drinks breast milk or artificial milk can grow and fat properly, but may have iron and zinc deficiencies if after 6 months does not start eating foods rich in iron (zinc worries less).
- He iron It is important for the body because it is necessary for the creation of hemoglobin, responsible for transporting oxygen to the tissues.
- Babies have iron reserves from birth, but depending on how quickly the cord is cut at birth, the weeks of gestation and the birth weight, they can last just six months, or be enough even for several more months.
In Babies and more48 foods rich in iron and 48 easy recipes so that it does not cost to improve the dietAnemia symptoms
One of the biggest problems with anemia is that it is often difficult to detect it because it is not part of a basis to compare. Anemia does not come from one day to another, and that is why parents cannot say that "yesterday was great and today I see it badly", because it is something progressive that also coincides with many other changes of the baby. If, for example, the baby begins to have anemia at 7-8 months and is increasing, it will be a baby with little appetite, relatively irritable, and with less energy than he would have if he did not have anemia. But aren't all babies different, and many relatively irritable and have little to eat?
In other words, Anemia symptoms are usually seen after the anemia is resolved, when the child suddenly has more energy, more appetite and is generally more "alive". That's when the parents say "oysters, because it affected anemia" (I tell you, I suffered in my own flesh).
And it is that an anemia affects growth, affects appetite, skin paleness, and may affect intellectual and psychomotor development.
What foods should we include as soon as possible?
Thus, to prevent the baby from suffering from iron deficiency anemia, what we have to do is offer from the beginning those foods that contain more iron. In this way, even if you eat little in each sitting, several few will help you get an adequate amount of iron on a daily basis.
And this considering, of course, that in the first weeks babies barely eat. That is, it is already taken for granted that a breastfed baby is not going to eat the first day that begins with the complementary feeding half chicken fillet, but if he eats a little piece at some time, and little by little, day by day, he goes Taking confidence and skill with food, it will be easier for 8-9 months to be already eating various of those iron-rich foods.
He iron It is in many foods of animal origin (heme iron) and in many of plant origin (non-heme iron). He iron that is best absorbed is heme iron, which is what we can find in meat, fish and egg yolk.
Nonheme, which is what is contained in legumes, dark leafy vegetables and cereals, is absorbed worse, and therefore it is advisable to accompany your intake of foods rich in vitamin C, such as oranges or broccoli (and supplement if the baby will not consume animal foods).
In Babies and more Foods rich in iron: what to eat if you have anemiaTreating anemia with a supplement
The best way to know if a baby has anemia is by a blood test, although it is usually done only when there is an obvious suspicion that the baby may be anemic.
In some cases, when you can believe that you do not have anemia, but if you continue like this you will have it (a baby of about 8-9 months who practically does not eat anything other than milk), many pediatricians prescribe an iron supplement in preventive doses; something like giving in drops the iron that day should enter through food, until the day when the baby already eats more and better.
This supplement is also the one that is used when the anemia is verified, only that the dose is higher because not only does the daily iron have to be provided, but it also recovers the baby's iron levels, which are below what is considered adequate.
How long with the supplement?
There is no clear answer, because it all depends on the degree of anemia of the baby, and how it evolves in terms of feeding.
If the supplement shows that iron levels are adequate, but the baby still does not eat well, anemia will return. If instead, in addition to solving the deficit, the baby eats better and more varied, it is less likely that he will have to take an iron supplement again.
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In Babies and more | Diseases that can complicate pregnancy: anemia, What we should know about iron and folic acid supplements in pregnancy
