How Iron Supplements Can Help Manage Your Child's Breath-Holding Spells

Health & Medical Blog

Breath-holding spells are a common problem in very young children and they can cause panic in parents. There is an obvious connection between iron deficiencies and these spells, which makes it important to boost your child's level of iron in a safe way.

Symptoms Of A Breath Holding Spell

Breath-holding spells are frightening situations that occur involuntarily when your child is hurt, frightened, or upset. This isn't the same as when your child holds their breath when they are angry at you because they can't control the problem. Typical episodes involve the child holding their breath to the point where they turn pale, blue, or even lose consciousness.

These episodes occur in about five percent of the child population and generally show up when they child is between six to 18 months of age. They can continually recur into the fourth to seventh year of their life. They aren't generally life-threatening, but severe and frequent episodes could be dangerous.

How Iron Treatments Can Help

A connection between iron anemia and breath-holding spells have been recognized in the past. In one report, it was found that children who suffered from severe breath-holding spells had very low hemoglobin in their blood, which is heavily effected by the amount of iron you eat. In this study, it was found that treatments with iron could help increase these levels and decrease breath-holding spells.

As a result, you should try to integrate iron supplements into your child's diet if they suffer from breath-holding spells. These supplements should be designed for pediatric use: don't simply give them your iron supplements, as this may offer them too much iron for their young body.

Dietary Treatments For Iron Deficiency

The best way to treat iron deficiency in your child is to increase the iron input of their diet. Supplements will help boost their levels over the short-term, but building a love of iron-heavy foods will make deficiencies less likely in the future. The following dietary changes should be implemented:

• Eating oranges and other foods high in vitamin C (helps iron absorb more fully)
• Feeding breast milk to an infant (breast milk is high in iron)
• Giving whole milk to children over the age of two (this is high in iron)
• Feeding them foods rich in iron, like red meats, salmon, tuna, egg yolks, dried peas, and beans

Make sure you don't overdo it by giving them too many foods that are rich in iron. The best guide is to talk to your pediatric specialist. They can help give you a dietary guideline that will gradually introduce iron into your child's diet in a safe and controlled manner. In this way, you can help decrease or even eliminate the occurrence of their breathing spells.

Share

30 November 2016