How to know if a pregnant woman is anemic

Many pregnant women are completely unaware that they have anemia. This can be judged by their daily life. If they often feel tired and have a weakened immune system, it may be caused by anemia. However, the specific condition can only be known after the examination. It must be cured in time, otherwise it will affect the baby's intellectual development.

1. The baby's vision and movements are not flexible. If the child is behind in reaching for suspended toys, picking up small objects with the thumb and index finger, stringing beads, stacking blocks, and doing puzzles that require visual and motor coordination, this will also affect the child's homework ability after entering primary school.

2. It is difficult to develop a regular day and night routine. Normal babies are easy to wake up when there is plenty of light. In the dark, the brain's response to pain and some stimuli through chemical transmitters slows down, and they gradually develop a life pattern of sleeping at night and waking up during the day. When iron is deficient, the difference in the speed of light transmission disappears, and people are as sensitive to everything at night as during the day.

3. Slow muscle movement ability. When iron is deficient, the myoglobin contains insufficient iron, resulting in muscle weakness. The baby is slow in lifting his head, turning over, sitting up, crawling, standing and walking. Anemia makes children feel weak all over, unwilling to move, always lying or sitting, and the movements they have learned gradually regress.

4. Backward knowledge and language. Insufficient iron storage in the mother within 6 months will make the baby listless and tired, have no interest in external things, be afraid to accept new things, and therefore have poor cognitive ability. Due to iron deficiency, babies have difficulty concentrating and are confused about changes in sounds. They neither try to understand the meaning of the sound changes nor are too lazy to imitate the pronunciation, so their comprehension ability is insufficient. There is little demand for active communication, so language skills are backward.

5. Poor memory. Because iron-containing enzymes are mostly concentrated in the periphery of the brain, which is also the memory storage area of ​​the brain. When iron is deficient, the enzyme activity in this area is insufficient, resulting in poor memory, making it difficult for children to learn objects, recite nursery rhymes and count.

Pregnant women with iron deficiency anemia not only have low immunity, but also affect the normal development of the fetal brain. From a clinical perspective, early pregnancy is a period of rapid growth of fetal brain nerve cells and a critical period for brain development. If a pregnant woman develops symptoms of anemia at this stage, it is very likely to affect the intelligence and behavioral abilities of the fetus after birth.

prevention

For pregnant women with anemia, paying attention to iron supplementation during pregnancy is the key to preventing and treating iron deficiency anemia. Iron is mainly found in the liver, lean meat, blood and clams of livestock and poultry. Therefore, by appropriately increasing the intake of iron-rich foods in your daily diet, you can increase the supply of hemoglobin iron and improve the symptoms of anemia.

In addition, pregnant mothers should eat more fresh vegetables and fruits rich in vitamin C, which can also promote the absorption of iron. Especially oranges and tomatoes, the large amount of vitamin C they contain can form soluble chelates with iron, keeping the iron in a dissolved state under alkaline conditions, thereby utilizing the gastrointestinal absorption of iron. From this point of view, increasing the intake of vitamin C can also prevent and treat iron deficiency anemia.