Can zinc deficiency in children cause anemia?

Children's growth requires a variety of nutrients, which mainly come from food. Of course, some children will receive Chinese medicine conditioning, diet conditioning or drug supplements, etc. However, children are most likely to be picky eaters, so it is easy to cause nutritional deficiencies, such as zinc deficiency. Zinc deficiency will cause many uncomfortable symptoms and is also prone to cause related diseases. So will zinc deficiency in children cause anemia? In fact, the probability of anemia caused by zinc deficiency is extremely low, and such symptoms generally do not occur.

Iron deficiency in the human body can cause anemia, zinc deficiency can cause loss of appetite, and calcium deficiency can cause rickets. Although zinc deficiency can cause anorexia and slow growth in infants and young children, as a trace element, zinc is indeed very important for the baby's growth and development, so it is called the "spark of life", but the daily demand for baby's growth and development is not large. For babies who are not zinc deficient, additional supplementation may cause an excess of zinc in the body, thereby triggering metabolic disorders and causing symptoms such as vomiting, headache, diarrhea, convulsions, etc., and may damage brain neurons and cause memory loss. Excess zinc is difficult to be excreted from the body. Excessive zinc content in the body will inhibit the body's absorption of elements such as iron, copper, calcium, and vitamin C, and cause iron deficiency anemia. The result of affecting calcium absorption is a decrease in immunity and poor disease resistance.

Zinc is involved in the synthesis and activity of many enzymes in the body, such as carbonic anhydrase, DNA polymerase, RNA polymerase, and is also closely related to the synthesis of many nucleic acids and proteins. If the body is adequately supplied with zinc, the anabolism of cystine, methionine, glutathione, endocrine hormones, etc. can proceed normally. Therefore, it can maintain the metabolism of the central nervous system and bone metabolism, and ensure and promote the normal growth of children's physical size (such as height, weight, head circumference, chest circumference, etc.), brain development, sexual characteristics development and sexual maturity.

In fact, food supplementation is the best way to supplement zinc for children, as it is most consistent with human metabolism. If zinc deficiency is not serious (symptoms are not obvious) or to prevent zinc deficiency, dietary supplements can generally be used. You can eat foods rich in zinc such as oysters, herring, dried shrimps, seaweed, fish meal, sesame seeds, peanuts, pork liver, etc. for dietary supplements. Eating more of these on a regular basis will generally not cause zinc deficiency. It is worth noting that dietary supplements have a disadvantage: they are slow to work. In addition, everyone's gastrointestinal absorption capacity is different, and some are even difficult to make up;

Therefore, for people who are severely zinc deficient or want to supplement zinc quickly, they should use zinc supplements in time, such as protein zinc, so that zinc supplementation is more comprehensive.

At the same time, try to avoid eating refined foods for a long time, pay attention to the combination of coarse and fine foods in the diet; eat more zinc-rich foods; such as: oysters, squid, red meat, animal liver, etc.

Will zinc deficiency in children cause anemia? Experts have a very clear answer to this question: iron deficiency can cause anemia, while zinc deficiency can cause other diseases and symptoms. As children grow, you should observe their diet, physical growth, personality, etc. If you find symptoms similar to zinc deficiency, you can supplement zinc. At this time, you can supplement it through food or take zinc supplements. The supplementation should also be determined according to the child’s usual habits.