What to eat to supplement zinc for babies who are zinc deficient

In life, although everyone knows that zinc deficiency is not good for children and that they need to supplement zinc in time, they do not know that children of different ages actually need different amounts of zinc every day. Generally, infants aged 0-6 months only need 1.5 mg of zinc per day, and infants aged 7-12 months need 8 mg. After that, the demand for zinc increases slowly with age, reaching a maximum amount of 19 mg at the age of 14-18. What should babies eat to supplement zinc if they are zinc deficient?

Infants, children and adolescents grow and develop rapidly and have a high demand for zinc nutrition, but often their diet is not reasonable, resulting in insufficient zinc intake. The main effects of zinc on children include the following 7 aspects:

2. Affect children's intelligence

3. Affect children's appetite

4. Reduce children’s immunity

5. Affect the healing of wounds and trauma

6. Affects the metabolism of vitamin A and normal vision

7. Affect the reproductive function of children when they grow up

Methods for zinc supplementation in babies

Zinc, like other trace elements, cannot be produced naturally in the human body. Due to various physiological metabolic needs, a certain amount of zinc is excreted from the body every day. Therefore, a certain amount of zinc needs to be consumed every day to meet the body's needs. So what should babies eat to supplement zinc? There is a method to supplement zinc, and you can't do it blindly.

Different people need different amounts

The Chinese Nutrition Society recommends the following daily zinc requirements: 3 mg for infants from birth to 6 months; 5 mg for infants from 7 to 12 months; 10 mg for children aged 1 to 3 years; 20 mg for pregnant women; 20 mg for nursing mothers; and 10 to 15 mg for normal adults.

Infants rely on breast milk for zinc supplementation

Breastfeed your baby for at least 3 months, and then gradually switch to cow's milk or other milk substitutes. The absorption rate of zinc in breast milk is high, reaching 62%. In particular, colostrum is high in zinc, with an average concentration 4-7 times that of serum zinc.

Such as beef, mutton, lean pork, animal liver, peanuts, soybeans, carrots, oysters, etc. According to measurements, the zinc content in animal foods is higher than that in plant foods, and the amino acids produced after the decomposition of animal protein can promote the absorption of zinc, with the absorption rate generally being around 50%; while the zinc contained in plant foods can combine with plant acid and cellulose to form water-insoluble compounds, thereby hindering human absorption, with an absorption rate of only around 20%. Bottle-fed babies should start adding easily absorbed zinc-rich complementary foods from 4 months old: minced lean meat, egg yolks, fish paste, animal liver, oysters, peanut rice flour, walnut kernel powder, etc.

Children's zinc supplementation depends on a balanced diet

Children over 5 years old can get enough zinc from food. Therefore, children should be educated from an early age to develop good habits of not being picky or partial eaters, and should pay attention to a reasonable and balanced diet structure, and a mixture of coarse and fine grains. In this way, children generally will not be zinc deficient. In daily life, you should also be careful not to let your children eat too much white sugar and sweets, so as not to affect the absorption of zinc. Zinc drugs should never be regarded as universal "nutritional supplements" and used for a long time.

Zinc is a very important element in the baby's growth process. If the baby is zinc deficient, the mother should supplement the baby in time. You can get a certain amount of zinc from different foods. Here we will introduce them to you from 4 categories.

Seafood: oysters, shrimps, kelp, dried shrimps, scallops, etc.

Meat: beef, chicken, pork kidney, pork liver, etc.

Fruits: peanuts, walnuts, mulberries, apples, etc.

Vegetables: potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots, soybeans, white fungus, cabbage, etc.