What happens if your baby takes too much zinc?

In daily life, babies need to supplement the trace element zinc appropriately, but they should also be careful not to over-supplement. Once over-supplemented, it will affect the baby's physical health. For example, excessive supplementation may cause anemia, affect the baby's body's absorption of iron, and easily cause nausea and vomiting symptoms. Attention should be paid to this aspect. Let’s take a look at this aspect.

What happens if your baby takes too much zinc?

1. Excessive zinc supplementation can cause anemia

Medical experts say that there is no need for preventive zinc supplementation until zinc deficiency is diagnosed. The most important thing is to pay attention to a reasonable dietary structure and add supplementary food to the baby in time. Food supplements are always the best choice. Egg yolks, lean meat, fish, animal offal, beans and nuts are rich in zinc, and babies can also get zinc from complementary foods. In order to prevent their children from suffering from developmental delay, intellectual disability and other problems, many parents give their children zinc supplements. However, if too much zinc is supplemented, it may affect the absorption of other trace elements such as iron, leading to iron deficiency anemia.

2. Excessive zinc supplementation can make you weak and vulnerable

To replenish blood, you must first supplement zinc. Many parents pay special attention to zinc supplementation for their children. However, studies have shown that if a baby who is calcium-deficient takes too much zinc supplements, he may be infected with other diseases due to reduced resistance. In fact, the amount of zinc that a healthy baby needs is very small. 3 mg to 5 mg per day is enough for children under 1 year old. If the amount is excessive, it will cause an imbalance in the proportion of trace elements in the body. Severe excess can also cause poisoning, nausea, fever, vomiting and diarrhea, and it is also easy to develop coronary heart disease, arteriosclerosis and other diseases in adulthood.

Dosage standard for zinc supplementation for infants

The harm of excessive zinc supplementation for infants is so great that parents must understand the dosage standards for infant zinc supplementation in advance when giving zinc supplements to their babies. Generally speaking, the dosage of zinc supplement should be determined according to the baby's age and the severity of zinc deficiency. For general infants and young children with malabsorption or zinc deficiency, zinc sulfate, zinc gluconate or zinc acetate can be taken orally 1 mg/kg per day. Plasma zinc levels should be closely monitored. To facilitate absorption, oral zinc should be taken 1 to 2 hours before meals. When taking zinc, you should also increase your protein intake and treat iron deficiency anemia to improve zinc deficiency faster.

Babies under 6 months old need about 3 mg of zinc per day, babies 7-12 months old need 5 mg of zinc per day, and babies 1-10 years old need about 10 mg of zinc per day. The daily zinc supplement for children is 0.6~1.5 mg/kg body weight. In addition to paying attention to the amount and time of zinc supplementation, the most important thing for growing and developing babies is to scientifically arrange three meals a day, that is, to diversify food, eat more vegetables, fruits and potatoes, and often eat milk, beans and their products. Parents need to be reminded that zinc is also known as a sexual stimulant. If taken blindly, it can easily cause premature sexual development in children. Therefore, zinc supplementation must not be excessive and must be scientific. If parents are unable to grasp the amount of zinc supplementation and do not know whether their baby is zinc deficient, they can go to the hospital for examination and take zinc supplements under the guidance of a doctor.