"Eat so well, why is the child not strong enough?" This is not the confusion of a few parents. Children and adolescents have their own physical development characteristics at each stage, which is in line with the average level of physical development at the corresponding stage and is healthy. When certain nutrients are needed at different developmental stages, parents should increase their intake of these elements to help their children successfully meet the special needs of the body.
Remember the key words of nutritional supplement.
When children are at a specific stage of growth and development, there are some elements that they need especially, but they are easily overlooked. They are calcium, vitamin D, iron and zinc.
1. Keywords: calcium, vitamin D
In infancy, in order to prevent rickets, parents generally know to supplement their children with calcium and vitamin AD (or cod liver oil products). In childhood and adolescence, many parents downplayed the awareness of calcium supplementation for their children, thinking that children will not get rickets, and dairy products and daily diet should be able to meet their physical needs for calcium.
Dairy products are a good source of calcium and can be absorbed well. Every 100 ml of ordinary milk contains about 100 ~ 120 mg of calcium. The recommended daily intake of calcium for adolescents aged 8 ~ 18 is about 1200mg, and at least 800mg should be guaranteed. According to a nutrition survey in China, people in China can get about 400 mg of calcium from their diet every day. For teenagers, to ensure the daily calcium supply of 800 ~ 1200mg, besides daily diet, they need to drink a lot of milk. If it is difficult to drink enough milk (500 ml) every day, calcium supplementation is a feasible choice.
At present, calcium deficiency in children and adolescents is rarely manifested as skeletal deformity caused by severe rickets, but it can be manifested as osteomalacia and osteoporosis. Children are prone to wrestling and fracture, and can also be manifested as leg pain, leg pain and weakness. The absorption rate of calcium supplementation alone is low, and vitamin D, the best companion of calcium, should be supplemented. Supplementing calcium with vitamin D can increase the absorption rate of calcium by more than 50% and promote the deposition of calcium in bones.
The main source of vitamin D in human body is produced by solar ultraviolet radiation, and the content of vitamin D in natural food is extremely low. However, with the change of people's lifestyle, there is less and less time for outdoor activities, and air pollution and other factors also affect the effect of sunshine. Therefore, the United States, Canada and Europe, including the China Nutrition Society and the Pediatrics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, recommend that infants, children and adolescents take at least 400 international units of vitamin D every day. At present, the lack of vitamin D among children and adolescents in China is quite serious, which affects the absorption of calcium. Parents should pay attention to that not only babies need vitamin D supplements, but also older children need adequate vitamin D and calcium. For children and teenagers, it is very necessary to supplement 400 international units of vitamin D every day. Don't worry about supplementing too much, because at least more than 4000 international units of vitamin D every day may cause adverse reactions.
In addition, human bones contain not only calcium, but also other minerals and collagen tissues, among which magnesium is also an important mineral and a beneficial factor to promote calcium deposition. In addition to adequate calcium and vitamin D, other nutrients such as magnesium are also indispensable for bone health.
Bone health is a lifelong matter. Attention should be paid to the intake of calcium and substances that can promote calcium deposition from childhood and adolescence, which can lay a good foundation for lifelong bone health.
2. Keywords: iron
Teenagers grow fast and their blood volume expands obviously. The increase of blood volume means the increase of hemoglobin synthesis and the increase of iron demand. For adolescent boys, adolescence is still a period of rapid muscle growth, and the production of myoglobin in muscle also needs iron. Therefore, adolescent boys may have transient iron deficiency anemia. Adolescent girls, due to menarche blood loss, irregular menarche, may have adolescent dysfunctional uterine bleeding, excessive blood loss, leading to iron deficiency anemia.
Adolescent boys and girls, it is recommended to check hemoglobin every six months. When hemoglobin is lower than 120g/L, it is suggested that there may be iron deficiency anemia, and it is necessary to supplement iron regularly for 2 ~ 3 months to observe the change of hemoglobin. At the same time, the diet should also be adjusted. Lean meat and beef are both foods with high iron content. At the same time, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, supplement vitamin C, and promote the absorption of iron. Most iron agents will have an iron taste, which will also stimulate the intestines and affect the compliance of users. Therefore, iron supplementation should choose products with better taste. Because the metabolism of iron in human body is complicated, not the more the better, it is emphasized that iron supplementation should be carried out under the guidance of doctors.
3. Keywords: zinc
Zinc deficiency and iron deficiency often go hand in hand. When there is a great demand for iron in adolescence, there is also a great demand for zinc. At present, the only possible indicator for judging zinc deficiency is serum zinc detection, and this only indicator has no high judgment value, which is also the main reason for the difficulty in judging zinc deficiency at present. When zinc can be supplemented, there are the following clinical periods worthy of attention.
* Zinc is related to children's physical development, especially height development. In the fast-growing infancy and adolescence, sufficient zinc is needed to ensure growth.
* Zinc can promote human immunity. When children have diarrhea or fever, the loss of zinc increases and zinc needs to be supplemented. At this time, zinc supplementation can not only shorten the course of disease, but also prevent repeated infection. Generally, zinc can be supplemented for about 2 weeks 10 ~ 20 mg per day.
Zinc supplementation may also be helpful for a few children with poor appetite, but because the reasons for poor appetite are complicated, it is unscientific to simply regard "poor appetite" as zinc deficiency and supplement zinc at will. Fortunately, zinc supplementation is relatively safe, unless a very large amount of intake will cause adverse reactions, and generally it will be lost and wasted if it is supplemented too much. Because the human body stores less zinc and needs to get it from the diet, it is very important to eat more zinc-rich foods. In fact, the food sources of zinc and iron are the same, and iron-rich (pork) lean meat and beef are also rich in zinc. Cooking methods will not affect zinc and iron, and housewives do not have to worry that cooking methods will destroy zinc or iron.
4. Keywords: multivitamins
Vitamin is an essential nutrient for human body, which participates in almost all metabolic processes of human body. People's demand for vitamins is small, but it is essential for life activities, and its role must not be underestimated.
* Vitamin A can maintain the normal visual function of human body. Lack of vitamin A may lead to night blindness and poor vision. Vitamin A can maintain the integrity of epithelial cells. After vitamin A supplementation in children with vitamin A deficiency, the incidence of respiratory infectious diseases decreased significantly. The most abundant vitamin A is animal liver, and carotene can also be converted into vitamin A in the body. If you are partial to food and picky about food, it may be a lack of vitamin A.
* B vitamins include vitamin B 1 (thiamine), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B6, vitamin B 12, folic acid, nicotinic acid, pantothenic acid and choline. The bran of grain is rich in B vitamins, but now the rice noodles people eat are too fine, and many B vitamins are artificially removed, resulting in the lack of B vitamins in the diet. Vitamin B 1 deficiency can lead to beriberi, and vitamin B2 deficiency can lead to chapped lips and angular stomatitis. New research also shows that B vitamins are also involved in DNA synthesis, maintaining genome stability and assisting DNA repair.
* In addition to iron deficiency, the common anemia in children may be folic acid, vitamin B 12 and vitamin C deficiency.
* The antioxidant effect of vitamin C may help to relieve cold symptoms and shorten the course of cold. Children should be encouraged to eat more fruits and vegetables.
To ensure adequate and balanced intake of vitamins and minerals, parents need to provide their children with a balanced diet, including food, meat, eggs, milk, fruits and vegetables, to help them overcome the bad habit of being partial to food and picky eaters.
Improve your immunity and don't expect to eat too much.
Parents are very concerned about their children's immunity because normal immunity is very important to the human body. On the premise of balanced diet, it has obvious contribution to the improvement of immunity, one is immunity, the other is physical exercise, and the contribution of diet to immunity is not as good as these two. Immunity directly stimulates the human immune system and promotes the production of antibodies and immune cells; Physical exercise can increase the secretion of adrenaline and promote the stress response of human immune system. In addition, paying attention to environmental hygiene and personal hygiene and reducing contact with pathogenic bacteria can also prevent diseases.
Although the effect of diet on improving immunity is not as good as that of immunization and physical exercise, if the eating behavior of children and adolescents is not healthy at all, it will still hurt immunity and damage the body. The so-called unhealthy eating behavior, children and adolescents should focus on preventing two tendencies: one is to eat western-style fast food frequently, and the other is to have a vegetarian tendency. In western-style fast food, B vitamins are destroyed a lot after food is fried, and long-term consumption will inevitably lead to B vitamins deficiency. In addition, some teenagers refused to eat meat under the influence of their parents' vegetarianism, or became slim under the influence of their friends. They voluntarily give up the opportunity to get iron and zinc from lean meat or beef, which easily leads to iron and zinc deficiency and affects the development of the whole body.