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For fortified strength

Iron is required in sufficient quantities for a healthy childhood

The adult human body contains just enough iron to make a small nail. Iron is an essential component of oxygen-carrying haemoglobin and myoglobin and vital enzymes in the body.

Children are especially vulnerable to iron deficiency. They have behavioural problems, repeat infections, loss of appetite, lethargy, breathlessness, increased sweating, pica — strange cravings like eating chalk and mud — and failure to grow at the expected rate.

Sometimes parents unwittingly expose their children to the risk of iron deficiency with poor food choices. Take milk, for example. Cow's milk is low in iron, and children who drink it by the quart are unlikely to be hungry enough to eat much else. Besides, milk retards the absorption of iron and can irritate the gut enough to cause small amounts of blood loss in the stools.

Breastfed infants get enough iron from their mothers until four to six months of age, but infants require iron-fortified cereals and iron-rich foods at weaning. Iron-fortified formulas help, but feeding infants leafy vegetables and fruit at weaning would be cheaper.

Iron-rich foods include red meat, liver, eggs, leafy green vegetables, lentils, beans and peas, fish, chicken, berries, dried fruit and iron-fortified cereals. Red meat is the most easily digestible form of iron, and a few small pieces a day for four days in a week are enough to satisfy iron needs. Minced meat mixed with cereals is a great way to introduce iron-rich foods to fussy infants.

Vegetarian diets are low in iron, but a diet rich in legumes is usually enough to stave off iron deficiency.

Vitamin C-rich foods such as oranges, limes, lemons, gooseberries, tomatoes and fresh cabbage increase the absorption of iron when eaten along with iron-rich foods. Parents must avoid serving tea and coffee at meal times because the tannin in tea and coffee retards iron absorption. Dietary fibre is important, but the phytate in bran and other fibres can severely reduce iron absorption, so discourage your child from going on high fibre diets.

Don't medicate your child with iron supplements unless advised to by a paediatrician. Keep iron supplements away from children — as little as one to three grams can kill a child.

RAJIV M.

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