Minerals for babies
Like vitamins, minerals your baby's body needs only in very small quantities. Minerals fall into food from the soil, and into seafood from the ocean. Calcium, phosphorus and magnesium, a big three of the minerals, help build strong bones. Iron and copper are involved in the formation of blood. Sodium and potassium( the so-called electrolytes) regulate the body's water balance. Deserve respectful mention and the smaller members of the mineral family, the so-called microelements, which help the body function properly: iodine, manganese, chromium, cobalt, fluorine, molybdenum, selenium and zinc. Minerals are found in the same foods as vitamins. Deficiency of these minerals occurs rarely, with the exception of iron. The most important minerals are iron, sodium( table salt) and calcium. Here are the facts about iron and sodium.
Iron: why it is needed in infants
Iron is an important mineral necessary for the normal functioning of all vital organs. The main area of its use in the body is the construction of hemoglobin, a substance contained in red blood cells and transporting oxygen. During a routine examination, usually between nine and fifteen months, the doctor can check your child's hemoglobin level by taking one drop of blood from the finger. The normal level of hemoglobin in infants usually varies from eleven to thirteen grams. If the level of hemoglobin is lower than eleven, the child is diagnosed with anemia. If the reason is insufficient intake of iron, this disease is called jelly-deficient anemia. Symptoms and symptoms of this disease
are irritability, growth retardation, decreased appetite, fatigue and general pallor, especially noticeable on the earlobes, on the lips and under the nails.
To understand how your child may have iron deficiency, let's go after this mineral in the body. During the child's stay in the womb, the mother supplies him with a huge amount of excess iron, which is stored in the tissues of his body and in the hemoglobin of red blood cells.(While babies born on time are born with a large reserve of reserve iron stored in their body, premature babies need iron supplements from birth.) When old red blood cells complete their life and are removed from the body, most of theThe iron is used repeatedly for new blood cells. When all the iron in the blood is consumed, the iron stores in the body give out iron enough portions to keep the hemoglobin in the blood at a normal level. If iron feeds on food, these stores are emptied by the age of six months. That is why it is necessary to start giving the breast-milk baby iron-rich milk, whether it is breast milk or iron-enriched artificial mixture, starting from birth, or at least a couple of months after birth.
Here are some recommendations on how to avoid iron deficiency.
Feed your baby for as long as you can. The special iron contained in your milk has a high biological activity, so 50-75% of it is absorbed, whereas from other products, such as iron-enriched flakes or artificial mixtures, only 4-10% of iron gets into your child's blood. Analyzes conducted at the age of four to six weeks showed that in children receiving breastfeeding, the hemoglobin level is higher than in children receiving iron-enriched artificial mixtures.
Do not give cow's milk to infants, limit its consumption to children under two years. Cow's milk( very iron-poor) should not be given as a drink to children under one year. In addition to being a very poor source of iron, excessive consumption of cow's milk can lead to irritation of the mucosa lining your baby's intestines, causing small losses of iron for a long period of time, which further exacerbates iron-deficiency anemia. Also, limit the consumption of milk to a child under two years 700 milliliters per day.
If you feed an artificial mixture, use iron fortified. Give your child an iron-fortified formula, preferably from birth, but you can start at least four months. Continue to give an iron-fortified mixture for at least a year, or until your child has a full-fledged alternative source of iron.
Combine products wisely.
Some products promote the assimilation of iron, while others inhibit it. Hard food at the same time as breast milk or immediately after breastfeeding can reduce the absorption of valuable iron from breast milk. For this reason, if your child has iron deficiency, keep between breastfeeding and solid food for at least twenty minutes. Here are a few iron assistants: foods containing vitamin C( fruits and juices), improve the absorption of iron and iron-rich foods, such as meat. Fish, poultry, meat and vitamin C increase the absorption of iron from other foods. Orange juice, accompanying the meal, can double the amount of iron absorbed from food. If you drink a meal with milk or eat dairy products along with it, it can reduce the amount of iron absorbed from other iron products by more than half. Nutritionists believe that animal protein products contain a "meat factor" that improves the absorption of iron from vegetables eaten simultaneously with meat. The best sources of iron
Iron-rich foods in descending order: Breast milk
Iron-enriched infant formula
Iron-fortified cereal fromcereals
Oysters Clams
By-products: liver Red meat Pork Lamb Bird Fish
Black reed molasses Seeds( crushed): sunflower, pumpkin
Requirementin the gland: infants and children require approximately 1.1 milligrams of iron per kilogram of body weight per day.
catfish. The best friends helping each other are meat and vitamin C-rich foods, eaten at the same time, during one meal. For example, spaghetti with tomato and meat sauce, cutlets with fresh cabbage salad, sausages with orange juice. Another combination will be fruit and iron-enriched flakes.
Remember that not all hardware is the same. It is best to digest iron from meat in the human intestine, and the more red the meat, the better the iron. Of red meat, up to 20% of iron can be metabolized, whereas only 5% of vegetable and vegetable sources are absorbed.
Do not rely on "paper hardware". Some products are rich in iron on paper, but have very little value when ingested. In these products, iron has such strong links with other elements that it is digested in the intestines only in small quantities, although the label on the bank assures that the product is rich in iron. Well-known examples of products rich in iron that practically do not penetrate the intestine are spinach and egg yolk.
Bypass salt with
The equilibrium in the body of salt, which includes sodium, is very important. If its amount of
is exactly equal to the norm - it's good if it's too much or too little - bad. Cells and tissues throughout the body are washed with water, and salt is responsible for maintaining a normal amount of water in the body. Kidneys are the masters of regulating the concentration of salt and water in the body. If the body receives too much salt, the kidneys leave additional water to dissolve the salt. The accumulation of excessive amounts of water, which is indicated by swollen eyelids and swollen ankles, is called edema. When the body loses too much salt,
as with diarrhea, the body loses along with salt additional water, which leads to dehydration.
Salt is available from nature in almost all products. If saltcellars were lost forever, your child would not suffer from sodium deficiency. But he can suffer from an excess of salt. As in the case of cholesterol, there is a relationship between excess salt in childhood and heart disease in old age. But there is no way to predict who is exactly located to the occurrence in the future of the salt-induced heart disease. Not every child who lies on the salt is sentenced to high blood pressure afterwards.
To reduce your child's craving for salt, try these salt reduction tips.
Prevent addiction to salt.
Young children love salt. Reducing the amount of salt added to children's dishes, provides a transition to a lower level of taste preferences for salt.
Give your child "low salt" milk. Breastfeed as long as possible. In human milk, three times less salt than in cow milk, and slightly less salt than in most artificial infant formulas.
Beware of salted cans. In the canning process, the products lose so much flavor that you need to add a lot of salt to restore their taste. One soup can, for example, contain three times the recommended daily intake of salt for a child. Fresh products retain more natural flavor. Prepare food from fresh ingredients, especially vegetables. Adding natural flavor enhancers, such as spices and lemon juice, is more useful than sprinkling dishes with salt. Accustom your child to unsalted crackers and popcorn.
Beware of salt in fast foods.
In packaged ready-to-eat breakfasts and in the dishes offered by fast food establishments, most of the salt is added to make young taste buds require more and more.
Remove the salt from the eyes. Another
before trying a dish, some people sprinkle salt food, doing it almost like a ritual, and children tend to repeat for adults who have this habit. If you keep in kitchen cabinet or on the stove, and are not on the table, and adding a pinch of salt during cooking, if necessary, you can give your child a few extra years of life.
How to feed a healthy heart
Breastfeed
Do not add salt at the table( or
add a minimum)
Avoid excess fat
Prevent obesity in the nursing
age
Encourage your child healthy
habits
Encourage physical activity
Do not smoke with children