10 Signs of Nutritional Deficiencies in children – Dr. Shaheena Athif

In children usually the common deficiencies are iron, Vitamin D deficiency and Vitamin B complex deficiency. So in iron deficient children we usually see that the baby may have decreased apatite or the baby may have frequent infection in such case you will have to take the baby to a doctor and after examination we may feel that there is paller for the baby, the baby will be pale, also some of the the children have a tendency to take non edible items like the may eat the cement or mud these are all indications that the baby may be having a n iron deficiency. At home you can do some remedies you can introduce iron rich food especially when the baby is around 10 months to 1 year of age as the development is more at this part of the age so you can give iron rich food like you can give Ragi, jaggery, green leafy vegetables, red meat all these things will help and also dry fruits which are iron rich, along with this we should also see the baby also gets enough of vitamin C so that the iron is been absorbed, the vitamin C should be like any citrus fruits have to be given. Coming to the vitamin D deficiency is which are also very common in the children that is the baby may have a delayed eruption of teeth like maybe in after 10 to 11 months the baby did not get any teeth and another thing is baby mayhave an abnormal shape of the head. And some bone deformities like bowing of the lags which are all seen after 1 year of age so again in this case you have to get them evaluated and couple of Lab tests are done and Vitamin D rich food should be given calcium also like a milk also has to be introduced, dairy products like paneer, butter, cheese also have to be given at this point of time. coming to vitamin D deficiency thus can be due to common in kids as they tend to be very much averse t Fruits and vegetables, some of the kid they are more interested in taking junk food did not take much of a fresh vegetables and fruits, so in this case children may have some ulcers in the mouth, cracks near the ankle of the mouth, hypo pigmented spots on the body, dry skin with lesions at the elbow and the knees. These are complex of vitamin D deficiency or other micro nutrient deficiencies.