The Danger of Anemia in Babies

It is much more common than you might think for babies to suffer from anemia during their first years of life. The most common and frequent anemia is iron deficiency, or what is the same thing that occurs due to a lack of iron in the baby’s diet. This type of anemia is very important to be able to detect it in time since otherwise it can negatively affect the growth and development of the baby.

THE IMPORTANCE OF IRON IN THE BABY’S DIET

From 6 months of age, the baby’s diet changes as another series of foods are introduced to help supplement the daily diet . Some of these foods must be high in iron for a number of reasons:

• • The iron is a very important mineral for the body as it helps to create hemoglobin, responsible for carrying oxygen to the tissues of the body .

• Babies have iron reserves in their bodies when they are born, but depending on their weight or the weeks of gestation, this reserve can last only about 6 or 8 months .

SYMPTOMS OF ANEMIA IN BABIES

One of the great problems with anemia is that it is very difficult to detect, especially in babies . Anemia is a progressive health problem that usually coincides with the changes that the baby has over the weeks. There are a series of symptoms that can indicate that the baby may suffer from anemia, such as loss of appetite, low energy and apathy. These are symptoms that many parents are unable to see until the pediatrician assures them that their baby is lacking iron. Remember that it is very important to be able to detect your child’s anemia in time since otherwise and if it increases, it can affect brain development and growth itself in a very serious and serious way.

FOODS A BABY WITH ANEMIA SHOULD EAT

You have to start from the assumption that babies barely eat during their first months of life. You have to be patient and make him eat even very little, some food rich in iron. It can be found both in foods of animal and vegetable origin. The animal origin is found in meat, fish or egg yolk. In the case of iron of vegetable origin, you can find it in legumes or cereals.

SUPPLEMENT TO TREAT ANEMIA

When it comes to preventing possible anemia in the baby, many pediatricians choose to send a supplement that helps the little one to raise iron levels in the blood . This supplement is administered orally and is easier to give than the aforementioned foods rich in iron.

Depending on the degree of anemia that the baby has, the treatment based on the supplement will be longer or shorter. At the moment in which the little one begins to accept food, the parents should stop giving him such iron supplement. The important thing is that the baby’s diet contains some iron since the supplement is not enough to prevent future anemia.

There are times when parents hardly pay attention to feeding the baby and believe that only breast milk and some other food is more than enough when feeding the little one. Anemia is more serious than it may seem at first , so do not forget to give your baby the dose of iron he needs for optimal development.