Year-end inventory: Is the child eating \”poison\” or \”nutrition\”?

Nowadays, many parents give their babies this and that supplement, because they are worried that their children’s physical fitness will not keep up, they are worried that they will not grow taller, and they are worried about brain development… At the end of the year, the section chief tells you: put the money away! Supplementing the right nutrients is more important than supplementing them well! Don\’t make your child get stones! Calcium, iron, zinc, DHA, protein… these nutrients are all around your baby! No medicine is as good as dietary supplements. As long as you get enough nutrients from your diet, there is generally no need for additional supplements! In the new year, the nutritional essence for babies is here! The \”required amount\” in the table below refers to the amount required for a child\’s daily diet, not the amount of additional supplements. Protein: Basic nutrition for height growth ● Important tips: ① Premature infants: need 3-4g of protein per kilogram of body weight. When the baby grows to the same size as a full-term baby (more than 2.5 kg), the protein needs are the same as those of an average full-term newborn. ②Breastfeeding: You need 2.0g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day (the protein content in 100mL of breast milk is 1.2g). ③Milk feeding: Each kilogram of body weight requires about 3.5g of protein per day (the protein content in 100mL of milk is 3.5g). ④Other milk substitutes or plant proteins: About 4.0g of protein is needed per kilogram of body weight per day. ⑤ In order to diversify your food, you can eat fish and shrimp 1-2 times a week, and soy products twice a week. You can eat chicken, duck, beef, and pork alternately. ⑥Children under 3 years old are not suitable to eat protein powder, as it is not easy to digest and can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain and other symptoms. Vitamins: Whether to supplement vitamins to make your baby full of energy depends on whether the child is deficient in vitamins and supplement them according to scientific methods. China’s guidelines recommend supplementation until age 2, while the United States recommends continuing it throughout childhood and adolescence. Under normal circumstances, except for vitamin D, other vitamins do not need to be supplemented and can be obtained through normal diet! ● Important tips: ① For exclusively breastfed babies, vitamin K (K1 25μg) should be supplemented after birth, especially for newborns born by cesarean section. ② A few days after birth (about 2 weeks), supplement vitamin D3 400IU every day. No additional supplements are needed for formula feeding. ③ Research shows that when basking in the sun, you should avoid 10:00 am to 3:00 pm according to the weather and the baby\’s own situation, and stay in the sun for 5-30 minutes. At least twice a week will give your child the minimum amount of vitamin D they need. ④ If you eat it according to the amount given by the doctor or the instructions, you will generally not be poisoned, so parents don’t need to worry. If the supplementary food is added normally, the amount of breast milk is sufficient or some formula powder is added, vitamin D supplementation can be stopped when the child is 1 to 1.5 years old. DHA: Makes the brain more active ● Important tips: ① Premature infants: It is recommended to supplement according to the infant\’s weight, with a minimum intake of 40 mg of DHA per kilogram of body weight. ②Formula-fed infants: It is recommended to supplement according to the weight of infants and young children, with a minimum intake of 20 mg of DHA per kilogram of body weight. ③Healthy people: The recommended daily intake is not less than 220 mg. ④ Never blindly supplement your baby with a large amount of DHA! DHA is just a type of fatty acid. If you consume too much, it will be consumed as energy. DHA is unstable,It is easily oxidized into free radicals (yes, the free radicals that cause aging and attack the human body), which is harmful to health. Calcium: Helps the development of baby’s teeth and bones ● Determine whether the child is deficient in calcium: The most valuable clinical examination is to take an X-ray of the wrist. You can also check the level of vitamin D in the blood (if the body lacks vitamin D, it will affect calcium, Phosphorus reabsorption and metabolism). ● Important Tips ① 1ml of milk contains 1.2mg of calcium. As long as the child can ensure the intake of milk, there is no need to supplement additional calcium. Daily milk volume: 6 months to 1 year old: 600-800ml/day 1-1.5 years old: 400-600ml/day Over 1.5 years old: ≥500ml/day ② Infants under 1 year old are not recommended to drink milk. ③Babies over 1 year old do not need additional supplements as long as they ensure they get enough calcium from food. Iron: Prevent anemia ● To determine whether a child is iron deficient, the main blood tests and four iron items should be tested. ① The blood routine mainly looks at the amount of hemoglobin. The amount of hemoglobin in children under 6 years old is usually not less than 110g/L. ② The four iron items include a. Serum iron; b. Serum ferritin; c. Serum total iron binding capacity; d. Transferrin saturation. Usually, a doctor needs to combine the above examinations, symptoms, dietary analysis, etc. to comprehensively determine whether there is iron deficiency and whether there is iron deficiency anemia. Trace elements alone are not enough. ● Important Tips ① Pregnant mothers should have balanced nutrition and supplement adequate iron through meals. If anemia is found during pregnancy, they should be actively treated according to the doctor\’s advice. ② If the baby is premature or has a low birth weight, it should be evaluated by a professional doctor and timely iron supplementation should be started from 2 to 4 weeks old. ③Insist on breastfeeding for 6 months after the baby is born. If mixed feeding or formula feeding, iron-fortified formula milk should be selected. ④When the baby is 6 months old, add iron-rich complementary foods in a timely manner, paired with fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C to aid absorption. Babies under 1 year old should avoid eating ordinary dairy products that are not made into infant formula. ⑤If formula powder and complementary foods cannot supplement enough iron, liquid iron can be supplemented appropriately! Babies over 1 year old should continue to pay attention to the balance and nutrition of food, promptly correct picky eaters, and consume adequate amounts of iron-rich foods, paired with vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables to aid absorption. ⑤No matter what kind of iron-containing food it is, parents should encourage their babies to eat it with fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C to aid absorption. ⑤The iron in egg yolk is not suitable for absorption, so egg yolk is not a good choice for iron supplementation for babies under 8 months old. ⑥Since iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in children, it is recommended that the baby be tested for iron deficiency through blood routine when the baby is 6 months old, and then every six months. Magnesium: Promotes large-scale exercise. Magnesium is a sensitive element that affects heart function. It has the function of regulating nerve and muscle activity and enhancing endurance. ● Important Tips ① If your baby is severely deficient in magnesium, do not over-feed your baby with foods high in magnesium. ② When supplementing magnesium, you must also supplement calcium. Magnesium supplementation alone can also cause harm to the body. Potassium: More important than calcium. Potassium deficiency will cause symptoms such as general weakness, fatigue, weakened heartbeat, and dizziness. ① If you sweat more, the loss of potassium will increase, so potassium supplementation should be done simultaneously with water replenishment.② If your baby has frequent vomiting, diarrhea, heavy sweating, and long-term gastrointestinal drainage, you must pay more attention. These conditions will increase the excretion of potassium from the digestive tract, leading to the possibility of acquired nutritional deficiency in potassium. Zinc: Increases appetite ● Important tips ① Babies in certain disease states need zinc supplements. Certain premature infants. Children with enteropathic acrodermatitis, a congenital zinc deficiency disorder. For diarrhea, the World Health Organization recommends zinc supplementation (10-20 mg/day) for children with diarrhea to shorten the course of diarrhea and relieve symptoms. ②The dosage is appropriate. Generally, when children are zinc deficient, the dose of zinc supplement is 1 mg/kg·d, that is, a child of 15 kg needs about 15 mg of zinc per day. Note: The dose of zinc here refers to the dose of elemental zinc. For example, 7 mg of zinc gluconate is equivalent to 1 mg of elemental zinc. A child weighing 15 kg needs about 15 mg of elemental zinc every day, which is about 100 mg of zinc gluconate. ③When children are zinc deficient, zinc supplements are usually given with drugs for about 1-3 months. It is not advisable to supplement zinc in large quantities for a long time. If the effect is still not obvious after 1 month of treatment, other reasons should be found. ④ The World Health Organization (WHO) and other authoritative organizations recommend 2 indicators as assessment indicators for zinc deficiency risk: the combined use of biochemical indicators (i.e., measuring zinc content in plasma/serum). The zinc content in daily meals and some functional indicators reflecting children\’s developmental status. Conclusion: It is unreliable to detect zinc deficiency based solely on trace elements collected from blood! A comprehensive judgment must be made based on three aspects: dietary status, development indicators, and zinc content in the blood.