Anemia

Anemia

What is anemia, and what causes it?

People become anemic when red blood cells don't carry enough oxygen to the tissues in their body. Various conditions can cause anemia, including an inherited illness called sickle cell anemia, but iron deficiency is the most common cause.

The human body needs iron to make hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying red pigment in blood. If your child doesn't get enough iron, he'll have fewer red blood cells and the ones he has will be smaller, so his body tissues will receive less oxygen than they should.

Children are especially susceptible to anemia during periods of rapid growth, when they need extra iron that they don't always get. But iron-deficiency anemia doesn't happen overnight — it's caused by a relatively severe deficiency that develops over time.

Iron deficiencies can happen for several reasons, including not enough iron in the diet, ongoing blood loss (in the intestinal tract, for example), and poor absorption of iron.

Is my preschooler at risk for anemia?

• Those who don't get enough iron in their diets to keep up with the increasing demands as they grow are at risk.

• Those who drink too much milk. Milk provides important nutrients in your child's diet, but it's low in iron, and it interferes with the body's absorption of iron. If your preschooler drinks a lot of milk, it may also replace his consumption of some important iron-rich foods.

• Those with undiagnosed cow's milk allergies. An allergic preschooler who drinks milk can have intestinal bleeding, which can lead to anemia.

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Other facts about anemia

Anemia is a common problem beginning at about nine months of age. In the last trimester of pregnancy, the mother passes a large amount of iron to the baby. This iron lasts for about four to six months after which the baby needs to supply all the required iron through the food he takes. This is the reason that infants taking formula should be on one that has a good amount of iron in it (not the low-iron formulations).

There are certain foods that can significantly increase the amount of iron absorbed as well as foods that can very significantly decrease the amount of iron absorbed. Breastmilk greatly enhances iron absorption in the gastrointestinal tract whereas cow's milk very significantly decreases absorption. This is one of the main reasons why it is suggested that whole cow's milk not be started until the child reaches one year of age.

However iron deficiency is not the only reason why an infant could be anemic. Anemia is a condition in which the body does not have enough normal red blood cells.

This essentially occurs in one of three ways:

• The body isn't making enough red blood cells
  
• The body is making enough red blood cells, but they are not normal red blood cells
• The body is destroying the red blood cells at too high a rate.
  
• Be sure a take a look at my previous answer about anemia which goes into more depth about these causes.

The fact that your child did not respond to the iron means one of two things:

She did not absorb enough iron to make a difference. With her taking three doses a day for six weeks, the most common way she could have had that lack of absorption is if the dose was incorrect or your daughter was drinking a lot of cow's milk.

Her anemia is caused by something else. This ought to be investigated because if her anemia is not from iron deficiency, then she certainly doesn't require iron supplementation. And in fact, prolonged iron supplementation when it isn't needed can cause problems with iron overload later in life.

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