Symptoms of zinc deficiency in seven-month-old babies

Zinc is a trace element that promotes human development and is essential for growth and development during infancy. If a baby is zinc deficient, it will lead to developmental problems, affect the baby's intellectual development, and cause the baby to suffer from dwarfism. Therefore, mothers must pay attention to their babies' symptoms of zinc deficiency. Generally, the main manifestations of zinc deficiency in babies are loss of appetite, loss of taste, slow growth and development, anorexia, etc. The following are the specific symptoms of zinc deficiency in seven-month-old babies.

2. Eat strange things. For example: biting nails, clothing, chewing toys, hard objects, eating hair, paper scraps, raw rice, wall dust, soil, sand, etc.;

3. Slow growth and development, height is 3-6 cm lower than the same age group, and weight is 2-3 kg lighter;

4. Low immunity, frequent colds and fevers, repeated respiratory tract infections such as tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, sweating, night sweats, etc.;

5. White spots appear on the nails, hangnails grow on the fingers, and geographic tongue appears (irregular red and white patterns on the surface of the tongue);

6. Hyperactivity, slow reaction, lack of concentration, and poor learning ability;

8. Skin damage: When trauma occurs, the wound is not easy to heal; prone to dermatitis and stubborn eczema;

9. Delayed sexual development during puberty, such as: small testicles and penis, low testosterone levels, and low sexual function in males; late breast development and menstruation in females; late appearance of pubic hair in both men and women;

10. Recurrent oral ulcers.

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.