The manifestations of calcium deficiency in infants
Release time : 04/19/2025 09:30:02
It is easy for infants to suffer from calcium deficiency. However, if parents do not know about the symptoms of calcium deficiency in their babies when they are already deficient, they may still ignore it and let the baby develop into severe calcium deficiency, which can lead to problems such as rickets.
Therefore, understanding the symptoms of calcium deficiency in infants is essential for mothers to make an initial judgment about whether their baby is lacking this nutrient.
1. Difficulty in falling asleep, restless sleep, night terrors and crying are some signs of rickets in infants.
Usually, newborns who are calcium deficient often experience sudden awakenings and prolonged crying during the night.
2. During the night, there is excessive sweating after falling asleep, with more noticeable sweating occurring when crying.
3. Children with abnormal temperament may have calcium deficiency, presenting symptoms such as irritability, frequent crying, restlessness, and difficulty in being watched.
4. Teeth erupt late, uneven teeth arrangement, some babies have not erupted their teeth by 1.5 years old, or teeth development is poor, occlusion is not correct, teeth arrangement is uneven, loose or too early to fall out.
5. The "beardless circle" or balding spot is a common symptom of calcium deficiency in infants, where sweating is often accompanied by the hair on the back of the head being worn away, forming a beardless circle.
Scalp eczema can be indicative of calcium deficiency, but it is not a definitive condition.
6. The fontanelles remain open until they close between the ages of 1 and 1.5 years, with calcium-deficient infants often remaining unclosed beyond the age of 1 year and 1/2, resulting in a square skull.
7. Children with delayed growth, delayed walking, deformed skeletal joints, and calcium deficiency often learn to walk by one year old or may present with "X" or "O" shaped legs due to soft bone structure, muscle laxity, and leg pain.
8. Muscle and tendon relaxation due to calcium deficiency can lead to severe conditions in the abdominal wall muscles, potentially causing intestinal wall muscle relaxation. This can result in gas accumulation within the intestinal lumen, leading to abdominal distension resembling that of a frog's belly.
If there is a relaxation of the tendons in the spine, symptoms such as hunchback, chestnut breast, and thoracic pain may occur.
9. Spindle-shaped Ribs: The condition involves hypertrophy of the costal cartilages, often due to insufficient calcium intake in neonates, leading to interconnecting rib cartilages that resemble spindles. This condition can impede lung expansion, causing difficulties in breathing and increasing the risk of respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia.
10. Mentally unwell, babies who are calcium deficient can also exhibit symptoms such as poor mental state, loss of appetite, lack of interest in their surroundings, convulsions, intellectual disability, and decreased immune function.
【Momnet Alert】Should the baby exhibit any of the following symptoms, parents should pay attention.
The most accurate method is to visit a hospital for testing of calcium content. Blood tests can be performed to measure serum calcium, serum phosphorus, and bone alkaline phosphatase levels, as well as dietary calcium determination, serum calcium measurement, urinary calcium assessment, and bone mineral density measurements.
The harm caused by calcium deficiency in infants is a significant concern, as calcium is one of the most important elements for human life.
Calcium deficiency can lead to poor physical development in both adults and children.
Particularly for children, insufficient calcium intake can lead to numerous adverse effects. For instance, they may experience: 1. Rickets, which can even cause various types of bone deformities such as chicken breasts or funnel chest, O-shaped or X-shaped legs; cranial deformity, rib prominence, etc.
2. Muscle tone is low, and motor function development is lagging behind.
3. Abnormalities in the function of the cerebral cortex, expression of apathy, and delayed language development.
4. Bed-wetting due to calcium deficiency can cause babies to sweat heavily at night, which in turn stimulates them to shake their heads while sleeping, resulting in the hair loss and bald spots on their backs from repeated scratching.
5. Immune system decline, long-term calcium deficiency can lead to low immunity in babies, and even affect their intellectual development.
6. Deformity, babies with severe calcium deficiency may also exhibit symptoms such as convulsions and skeletal deformities.
Friendly reminder: Currently, the main types of calcium supplements available in the market include natural milk calcium, calcium carbonate, ammonium phosphate calcium, citrate calcium, organic calcium, and calcium carbonate.
Among them, natural calcium is a mixture of natural cow milk through physical purification, the total inorganic salt content of cow milk is about 0.7%, calcium is about 0.1%.
Compared with other calcium supplements, natural milk calcium is a more superior and easier to absorb calcium supplement.
Blue River Sheep Milk Formula contains natural calcium from sheep milk, combined with small molecular amino acids in sheep milk, which has a higher absorption rate than that of cow's milk, making it the preferred choice for infants to supplement their calcium intake.
Therefore, when a baby is calcium deficient, parents can choose Lanhe Sheep Milk Powder to help the baby quickly supplement calcium and better protect the baby's stomach.
What to do if your baby is calcium deficient? The first year is crucial for a baby's development. If your baby is calcium deficient, they may show symptoms like crying, fussiness, irritability, cold easily, and poor sleep.
So, what should we do if our baby is calcium deficient? Mambopedia has some tips for parents! First and foremost, it's best to supplement with food. Parents can choose foods rich in calcium for their infants to consume.
For example milk, cheese, beans, green vegetables, shrimp skin, orange juice, etc.
Second, milk calcium products are extracted from natural cow's milk, which does not harm the stomach and intestines, making them particularly suitable for infants to absorb.
Calcium lactate is in the form of a liquid oil. For infants aged 1 year and under, you can break open the capsule tail to directly pour it into a spoon or onto the baby's bottle mouth for them to suck on. For children aged 3 years and above, you can chew and consume it directly.
Or can be added to milk, juice or other baby food, it is easy to feed and especially suitable for infants.
Third, there are many formulations of calcium supplements available to parents. It is advisable to choose an inorganic calcium source with a higher calcium content, such as calcium carbonate or lactate calcium, which are easily digestible and come in specially formulated baby calcium supplement packages, which should be administered daily to children at a fixed dosage.
Generally, it is administered from the 15th day after birth until the end of the 2nd or 3rd year.
Fourth, appropriate sunlight exposure is beneficial for the absorption of calcium by babies. Moreover, babies should expose as much skin as possible to increase the synthesis of vitamin D in their skin.
In autumn, parents can let their baby enjoy the sun bath directly, and in summer, they can let the baby's skin often be exposed to ultraviolet rays under the shade of trees, so that the absorption of calcium is better.
What to eat for calcium deficiency in infants? As the saying goes, "Medication is better than food." The diet is also the main source of calcium supplementation. So, what can babies eat to get their required calcium? Here are some foods that help the baby obtain the necessary amount of calcium.
1. The top calcium supplier is milk. Milk has extremely high nutritional value, serving as the optimal source of calcium for the human body, and its calcium-phosphorus ratio is very appropriate, facilitating calcium absorption.
Therefore, milk is called the most "near-perfect food" and the most ideal natural food.
2. Sour and sweetness also contain calcium-orange juice oranges are called "good fruits for curing diseases" and are rich in vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, etc. The calcium contained in 8 ounces (about 226 grams) of orange juice (300 mg) is equivalent to the calcium content in a cup of milk.
3. Adults and children love to eat-cheese dairy products are the best choice for calcium supplementation in foods, while cheese is the dairy product with the most calcium, and this calcium is relatively easier for babies to absorb.
The calcium content of cheese is: 250 ml milk =200 ml yogurt =40 grams cheese.
4. Legumes are rich in calcium - Legumes have a high nutritional value, and most legumes contain considerable amounts of calcium.
However, please remember that children over the age of one can only consume soy milk and should avoid consuming it in large quantities to prevent allergic reactions to proteins.
5. Eat more vegetables to grow taller - Green leafy vegetables should be consumed by babies in abundance, such as spinach, kale, Brussels sprouts, and mustard greens.
Try it with canned, fresh and frozen varieties and add butter to taste.
6. Seafood is undoubtedly a good source of calcium-shrimp skin. It contains abundant protein and minerals, particularly high in calcium, known as the "calcium reserve," making it an excellent way for those with calcium deficiency to supplement their calcium intake.
Preparing a variety of sautéed shrimp for baby's meals is an effective way to ensure adequate calcium intake.
Should, when should babies be given calcium supplements? Babies under the age of two have less outdoor activities, grow rapidly, and are prone to calcium deficiency.
Premature babies, twins, and children born in winter are more likely to have calcium deficiency than other children.
Children with stunted growth and low parents should pay attention to calcium supplementation to promote the growth of their children's bones.
When you discover that your child is growing rapidly in height, please pay attention to reasonable calcium supplementation.
Calcium helps the teeth grow healthy when a child has their teeth or molars.
Children who are picky, anorexic, have indigestion, have improper dietary nutrition, and do not like milk products are prone to calcium deficiency.
Children who have good nutrition and are overweight need more calcium than children in general.
*The medical part mentioned in this article is for reference only.
If you experience discomfort, it is recommended to seek medical attention immediately. The diagnosis and treatment should be based on an in-person consultation with a medical professional.