Anaemia (anaemia) is a condition in which the concentration of haemoglobin in red blood cells falls below the norm accepted for people in certain sex and age groups. This is usually accompanied by a decrease in the haematocrit value and a decrease in the number of red blood cells.
Symptoms and course anaemia in a child
In children, the haemoglobin concentration changes with age and only reaches adult-typical values at the age of 12-14 years. The diagnosis of anaemia must therefore be based on a breakdown into different age groups. According to the WHO, in children over 1 year of age, anaemia is diagnosed when the haemoglobin concentration is: <11 g% at age 2-6 years and <12 g% at age 6-14 years. Above 14 years of age, the norm differentiates between females and males, as girls who start menstruating have physiologically lower haemoglobin values than their male peers. The norm for those over 14 years of age is >12 g% in girls and >13 g% in boys.
In children over one year of age, the most common symptoms of anaemia are pallor, fatigue, susceptibility to infection, reduced exercise tolerance, feeling of rapid heartbeat and palpitations, headaches, listlessness or irritability, impaired concentration, learning difficulties at school, trophic changes in the skin and nails (dry and scaly skin, erosions at the corners of the mouth, thinning hair, brittleness and fragility of the nails).
When to go to the doctor and treat anaemia in a child
If a randomly performed blood count test reveals haemoglobin values lower than the lower limit of normal for the age group, or if the child has the symptoms described above, suggesting the possibility of anaemia, a paediatrician should be consulted. In order to differentiate the cause of the anaemia, the doctor will assess the morphology results (including very important additional parameters such as MCV, MCH, MCHC and RDW) and the child's symptoms. Often, additional tests will be needed, such as iron concentration and iron binding capacity (TIBC), or others, depending on the doctor's decision.
The differential causes of anaemia are wide ranging. Iron deficiency is the most common cause, but folic acid and B vitamin deficiency are also possible. Anaemia can also be a symptom of various systemic diseases, such as chronic infections, chronic inflammatory diseases (joints, intestines, liver, kidneys), malabsorption syndromes (e.g. celiac disease, food allergies or intestinal parasites), nutritional deficiencies, poisoning, congenital defects of red blood cells and many others.
Treatment anaemia in a child
With typical iron deficiency anaemia, first and foremost the recommendation of long-term administration of iron and vitamin preparations must be followed, even if haemoglobin values improve quite rapidly. In order to compensate for all deficiencies in tissue stores, iron preparations should be given for at least 2-3 months.
It is important to follow a proper diet, i.e. to increase the intake of red meat, fish, vegetables, egg yolk and juices and fruits containing vitamin C. Parsley, legumes, sultanas, apricots, nuts and peppers also contain a lot of iron. The intake of black tea, natural coffee, cow's milk and flour and groats should be limited.
