What is the cause of anemia in newborns?

Neonatal anemia is a relatively common symptom in infancy and childhood. Long-term anemia may affect the baby's heart function and intellectual development. Anemia in infants and young children is mostly caused by malnutrition. I believe many mothers still don’t know the specific causes of neonatal anemia. Let me share with you the causes of neonatal anemia.

1. Antepartum bleeding is mainly transplacental blood loss, including fetal-placental bleeding, fetal-maternal blood transfusion and inter-twin blood transfusion. Because the bleeding is hidden, the amount of bleeding varies, and the bleeding speed can be rapid or slow, the clinical manifestations are different.

2. Blood loss during delivery is mostly caused by obstetric accidents, placenta and umbilical cord malformations during delivery.

(1) Placental abnormalities: Severe blood loss often occurs in placenta previa, early placental abruption, or mis-cutting of the placenta during cesarean section. Multilobed placenta is the most common placental malformation. Each lobe sends a fragile venous branch to the placenta, which is prone to rupture and bleeding.

(2) Umbilical cord abnormalities: A normal umbilical cord may bleed suddenly due to excessive pulling. Umbilical cord malformations include umbilical cord hemangioma and aberrant vessels. The latter is that the umbilical cord branches out into one or more blood vessels before reaching its implantation site. The blood vessels have thin walls and lack the protection of the umbilical cord jelly-like tissue, making them very easy to rupture. The umbilical cord is implanted in the placenta in a velamentous manner, and the blood vessels also pass through the amnion and chorion without protection. The bleeding rate is 1% to 2%.

3. Postnatal blood loss Postnatal blood loss is mostly caused by umbilical, gastrointestinal and internal bleeding. In recent years, blood loss caused by diagnostic blood drawing in hospitals has also increased.

Nutritional supplements

(1) Iron supplements: The cause of physiological anemia in premature infants is not related to iron, but the iron reserves of premature infants decrease after 2 to 3 months of birth. Iron supplementation should be started 4 to 6 weeks after birth, with a dose of 1 to 2 mg/kg per day.

(2)VitE Both breast milk and modern formula milk contain sufficient VitE and low levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, so VitE deficiency rarely occurs.

(3) Folic acid: Both breast milk and formula milk contain sufficient folic acid, so supplementation is generally not necessary, unless infants on special diets (such as phenylketonuria and maple syrup urine disease) are at risk of folic acid deficiency.

After my description above, everyone has their own understanding and insights into the causes of neonatal anemia. If the baby has symptoms of bleeding anemia, it is necessary to go to a regular hospital for examination as soon as possible and follow the doctor's plan for diagnosis and treatment. In addition, in daily life, you must also pay attention to the nutritional balance of the baby's diet. A healthy diet combined with regular treatment is beneficial to the baby's development.