Is it zinc deficiency that causes children to not eat?

Many people will ask if children not eating is due to zinc deficiency? For this question, I must give everyone the correct explanation. Parents may wonder, because of the advertisements on TV, if their children don’t eat because of zinc deficiency? In fact, for most children, zinc deficiency will not occur. It is not because the human body lacks certain nutrients that we lose appetite. Many children just like to eat snacks and don’t like to eat meals. It's not due to zinc deficiency. If you listen to the advertisements on TV and give your children some unreasonable medicines indiscriminately, it will cause a huge burden on your child's body. It may even affect his normal development.

I don’t know if it’s because the TV commercials are too successful, but when many parents notice their children have a poor appetite, their first reaction is “Maybe my child is zinc deficient?” Does a child who refuses to eat mean that he is zinc deficient? Nutritionists say that a child who refuses to eat does not necessarily mean that he is zinc deficient.

Children's refusal to eat may not necessarily be due to zinc deficiency

Zinc is a trace element that participates in the composition of hundreds of enzymes in the human body. Once it is deficient, it will affect the activity of these enzymes, causing children to have poor appetite, pica, low immunity, and stunted growth and development. However, zinc is a trace element in the human body and the required amount is not large. If a child's diet structure is unreasonable, with less intake of milk, meat, fish, seafood, etc., and a vegetarian diet, it can easily cause zinc deficiency. However, a child not eating does not mean that the child is zinc deficient. In fact, sometimes the children have clearly eaten enough, but in the eyes of the parents they always feel that they have not eaten enough. The children have obviously eaten a lot of snacks, including milk, fruits, etc., but some parents think that these do not count as "meals", so they always think that the children "eat" less and have a poor appetite.

Under what circumstances will children be zinc deficient?

If a child has diarrhea for a long time, it is easy to cause poor zinc absorption and zinc deficiency. Another reason is that the diet given to children is unreasonable. For example, some children mainly eat white porridge for a long time and eat too little meat, which can also easily lead to zinc deficiency. For babies whose main food is milk, since milk contains zinc, they will generally not suffer from zinc deficiency as long as the amount of milk is sufficient, regardless of whether they are breastfed or formula-fed.

Whether a child is zinc deficient should be judged comprehensively

Many parents check their children's trace elements to determine whether they are zinc deficient. Liu Changwei said that it is unreliable to rely solely on this test to determine whether there is zinc deficiency. The zinc content in the blood fluctuates. A low zinc content in the serum once cannot be used to determine that the child is zinc deficient. Therefore, multiple examinations are needed, and comprehensive consideration must be given to dietary conditions, clinical manifestations, etc. If the zinc level is low in more than 2 tests, and the child's diet is at risk of zinc deficiency and there are symptoms of zinc deficiency, then the child can be diagnosed with zinc deficiency and needs zinc supplementation.

Parents should perhaps know more about their children's physical development than what is shown on television. If your child still doesn't like to eat, you can improve his diet structure. Let him eat more vegetables and fruits, and let him supplement some energy that rice can bring from vegetables and fruits! It will not have an impact on the child's body. The question of whether the child does not eat because of zinc deficiency is not uncommon.