How to determine whether your child is zinc deficient

Zinc deficiency is a common condition in children. When children are young, zinc deficiency is particularly serious. Many parents do not know what kind of harm zinc deficiency can bring to their children. If children are zinc deficient, their appetite will be very poor. When children have poor appetite, they will not grow if they do not eat, and many parts of their body will not develop. The harm to children is more difficult than you think. So we must first determine whether our children are zinc deficient. So how to judge whether children are zinc deficient?

The main physiological function of zinc is to promote growth and development. Zinc deficiency will cause a lot of discomfort to the child's body, especially when growth retardation occurs, which seriously illustrates the severity of the zinc deficiency problem. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the method of detecting zinc deficiency in children as early as possible.

There are two ways to detect zinc deficiency in the body: one is to test hair zinc, which is done by testing hair; the other is to test blood zinc, which is done by testing blood and then combined with the following clinical manifestations to make a judgment:

1. The child eats a small amount, does not feel hungry, and does not eat on his own initiative.

2. Children like to bite their nails, clothes, toys, hair, paper scraps, wall dust, dirt, etc.

3. The child grows and develops slowly.

Methods for detecting zinc deficiency in children to avoid mistaking zinc supplementation for children (2)

4. The child's hair grows slowly, white spots appear on the nails, hangnails grow on the fingers, and a geographic tongue appears.

5. The child is hyperactive, slow to react, and has difficulty concentrating.

6. Children often catch colds and fevers, and have repeated respiratory tract infections.

7. Recurrent oral ulcers

Symptoms of zinc deficiency in children

1. Nutritional dwarfism. Zinc deficiency can lead to a loss of taste, which will inevitably result in a reduction in food intake and a decrease in food utilization. At the same time, zinc deficiency will increase protein decomposition and reduce amino acid utilization, causing slow growth and development, and the body to become short and become a dwarf.

2. Incomplete development of secondary sexual characteristics. Secondary sexual characteristics appear under the action of hormones secreted by the testicles and ovaries, and the secretion of hormones is influenced by gonadotropins secreted by the pituitary gland. Zinc deficiency can lead to poor development of secondary sexual characteristics because it causes hypopituitarism and a decrease in the level of gonadotropin in the blood.

3. Congenital dementia. What are the symptoms of zinc deficiency in children? Zinc deficiency is one of the causes of congenital dementia that cannot be ignored, because zinc deficiency will affect protein synthesis, and thus affect the normal cell division. Therefore, in the late pregnancy and 1 to 2 years after birth, since the fetus and infants are in the period of brain cell division, zinc deficiency will reduce the total number of brain cells. If zinc deficiency continues after birth, it will inhibit the growth of brain cells, thus leading to congenital dementia.

If you find that your child is zinc deficient, it is best to go to the hospital for a trace element test in time. If the child is indeed zinc deficient, then zinc supplementation should be given in time. Give the child more iron-rich foods, such as fruits like bananas, which have other benefits to the child's body. If the child is zinc deficient, you must not let the child become picky about food. This will cause the child to become zinc deficient over time. If the condition is serious, the child should also be given health supplements to treat the zinc deficiency.