How to quickly increase hemoglobin in a child. Home remedies to increase hemoglobin in a child

  • Date of: 26.10.2023

Hemoglobin is a complex protein found in red blood cells. The main purpose of hemoglobin is to transport oxygen from the lungs to all tissues of the human body. If the body lacks this oxygen, the child quickly gets tired, becomes lethargic, and often gets sick. Normal hemoglobin levels can vary from 110 to 150 g per liter of blood, depending on the age of the child.

Hemoglobin most often decreases due to an unbalanced diet, when the body lacks minerals and vitamins. However, a decrease in hemoglobin can be a consequence of serious blood loss, autoimmune diseases, long-term infectious diseases (pneumonia, tuberculosis, hepatitis).

How to understand that a child has low hemoglobin

Parents usually learn about a reduced hemoglobin level from blood tests. However, sometimes low hemoglobin can be determined by the condition and behavior of the baby. Often, a child comes home from school very tired, sleeps a lot, and gets tired quickly after physical or mental stress. Your son or daughter may feel dizzy; your child often suffers from colds. External signs include bluish lips, brittle nails and hair, and shortness of breath even with light exercise. The skin of a child with low hemoglobin becomes pale and very flaky. If you notice this condition in your child, immediately take a blood test to find out the hemoglobin level. If this indicator is below normal, you need to urgently change your diet.

What is a balanced diet

Most publications write “balanced nutrition.” What is this balance? What should a child’s diet be like so that he gets the right amount of vitamins and minerals every day? In fact, everything is very simple. Every day a person (adult or child) should consume five different types of food so that his body does not need anything.

  1. Cereals. Most often we use them in the morning - in various cereals. If every day a child eats porridge (different every day), then there can be no talk of any imbalance in nutrition. Buckwheat, barley, lentils, and rye are the best ways to increase hemoglobin.
  2. Dairy products. The child’s diet should include milk porridge, yogurt, kefir, sour cream, fermented baked milk - what he loves. Every day, one dairy product. However, remember that calcium interferes with the absorption of iron, which is so necessary for increasing hemoglobin. Therefore, milk should be eaten separately from iron-containing foods.
  3. Meat. It is very difficult to increase hemoglobin if you do not eat meat. This is why many vegetarians suffer from low hemoglobin. Red meat is a valuable storehouse of iron. Every day a child’s diet should include a piece of meat, at least 100-150 grams. In addition, beef offal - liver, heart, tongue - will quickly help raise hemoglobin. Fish must be eaten once a week.
  4. Vegetables. Eating raw and boiled vegetables is a must. Especially new potatoes, tomatoes, beets, pumpkin, turnips. You can also raise hemoglobin with the help of greens - spinach, parsley, dandelion leaves, turnip tops.
  5. Fruits. Every day the baby should eat some kind of fruit. Apples, apricots, bananas, plums, pears, peaches, quinces and persimmons are best for hemoglobin. Pomegranate is especially rich in iron, but it should not be eaten by children prone to constipation.

In addition to these mandatory items, walnuts, eggs, mushrooms, dried fruits, red and black caviar, currants, cranberries, hematogen, and dark chocolate will help restore immunity. When creating a diet, remember that good nutrition can raise hemoglobin better than any medicine and improve your child’s health.

How to increase hemoglobin in a child

Here are some more tips to help you raise your hemoglobin levels in your blood.

  1. Since your child does not have enough oxygen in the blood, you need to exercise more often and walk through forested areas. In nature, the child will be able to saturate the body with oxygen and have a good rest.
  2. If the child is small and rather fussy about food, you need to prepare special sweets for him. Grind dried apricots, raisins and walnuts through a meat grinder. Pour honey into the mixture and mix thoroughly. Roll the resulting porridge into small balls. Your child will certainly like this delicacy, because the balls turn out tasty and sweet.
  3. Prepare a healing remedy that will raise hemoglobin in a few days. Grate the radish, beets and carrots. Add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the mixture. Carefully squeeze out all this porridge. Let your child drink the resulting juice, one tablespoon in the morning and evening. Very soon his health will improve significantly.
  4. Various berries, especially rowan, cranberry and black currant, help fight low hemoglobin very well. The berries can be eaten fresh, in the form of jam, frozen, or ground with sugar. Your child will certainly like this treatment.
  5. Many traditional healers advise raising hemoglobin using dandelion jam. It's very easy to prepare. Collect dandelion flowers early in the morning and add them to the pan. Add a liter of water so that the liquid covers half the flowers. Place half a lemon without peel into the mixture and simmer over low heat for about an hour. After this, the broth should be filtered and three glasses of sugar should be added to it. Not only is the jam very healthy, it is also incredibly tasty.
  6. Lungwort will help increase hemoglobin and immunity. Its decoction can stimulate the production of new blood cells. The flowers and stems of the young plant can be eaten without any processing, but most often a decoction is prepared from lungwort. Pour boiling water over the stems and leaves, let it brew for about an hour, and then strain. Drink the resulting decoction half a glass in the morning and evening.
  7. Among the recipes of traditional medicine there is one indispensable remedy against low hemoglobin. This recipe is also used for diseases of the thyroid gland - with a lack of iodine in the body. Take unripe green nuts and grind their kernels. Pour two glasses of kernels with a liter of natural honey. The tincture should be infused for three months in a dark place. Every day the composition must be thoroughly mixed. When the medicine is ready, take a tablespoon before each meal, 3-5 times a day. Full course of treatment - until the entire capacity is exhausted. After taking this medicine, you will be able to forget about the problem of low hemoglobin, at least for the next six months.

Poor health, depression and high fatigue are common companions of the autumn-winter period. But you don’t need to take it for granted and put up with this state of affairs. Improve your child's hemoglobin so that the school lessons spent will not be in vain. Your child’s good mood is your merit, and autumn is not a reason for the blues!

Video: how to increase hemoglobin at home

The baby has been diagnosed with anemia, and the parents begin to look for how to increase the child’s hemoglobin. Correction of this indicator is necessary, because a decrease in hemoglobin level leads to a deterioration in the supply of oxygen to tissues and organs. The resulting condition is dangerous for the child’s body and, without treatment, causes developmental delays.

In contact with

If the decrease in hemoglobin is not caused by diseases that interfere with the production of red blood cells, then you can increase it at home, following medical prescriptions.

In children with a moderate decrease in hemoglobin, you can try to increase hemoglobin protein in the blood with the help of iron-containing products. Your child's diet should include:

  • turkey and rabbit meat;
  • offal;
  • beef;
  • chicken yolks;
  • seafood;
  • legumes;
  • buckwheat porridge;
  • vegetables and fruits;
  • nuts.

Compote made from dried apricots will also help raise hemoglobin in a child’s blood.
The consumption of baked goods, chocolate, condensed milk and sweet sodas should be limited, or better yet, these products, which reduce the level of hemoglobin protein, should be completely excluded from the diet.

Dairy products slow down the absorption of iron, but it is impossible to completely exclude milk from a child’s diet - calcium is necessary for growth. During treatment, it is recommended not to mix dairy products with iron-containing foods.

In case of anemia, even in a mild form, since it is impossible to raise the hemoglobin level with nutrition alone, the child is prescribed medications with iron. There are quite a large number of them, dozens of names. Preparations in syrups and solutions can be used for children, with virtually no age restrictions:

  • Ferrum-lek;
  • Ferlatum;
  • Totema (from 3 months).

For children, an accurate dose calculation is required, which is carried out based on the child’s weight.

Children's iron-containing preparations are well absorbed in the intestines, have a pleasant taste and help to quickly increase hemoglobin. Iron injections to raise hemoglobin are rarely prescribed. The indication for injections is a significant decrease in level that poses a threat to life.

What to do if there is a low level of Hb in the blood of a baby?

You should begin to increase hemoglobin in a breastfed baby by adjusting the menu of the nursing mother. A woman needs to eat:

  • beef;
  • liver and other offal;
  • vegetables;
  • fruits and berries;
  • legumes;
  • seafood.

But, trying to increase the baby’s hemoglobin, you should not eat a lot of recommended foods - this will cause digestive upset in the child. New foods should be added to the diet in small portions and the baby’s bowel movements should be monitored. If the baby feels well, then the next day you can add another healthy dish.

The diet of an older child must be healthy and balanced

Adapted iron-containing mixtures will help raise hemoglobin in a bottle-fed baby. Therapeutic nutrition is selected by the pediatrician, taking into account the characteristics of the disease.

Anemia in pregnant women is often detected due to the fact that the growing child actively consumes iron, depleting the reserves of the mother's body. Women are interested in how they can increase hemoglobin so as not to harm the fetus and improve their well-being. Doctors recommend:

  • include iron-fortified foods in the menu;
  • take iron-containing medications (with a strong decrease in hemoglobin level).

If anemia is detected, it must be treated immediately. A pathological decrease in hemoglobin causes fetal hypoxia and causes intrauterine growth retardation.

Useful video

Practical tips on how to increase hemoglobin in a child:

Conclusion

  1. Low hemoglobin in a child is a serious problem, since if it persists for a long time, it affects physical and mental development.
  2. An iron-rich diet without the use of iron-containing drugs cannot increase a child’s hemoglobin.
  3. The medications used are the same as for adults, but in a reduced dose. Children under 6 years of age can only be given syrups and solutions. Chewable tablets are also an acceptable option. All three forms of release have a pleasant smell and sweet taste, which is why they are well accepted by children.

Hemoglobin up to a year varies depending on the months of life. By systematically examining the blood, you can track the required values. If the indicators do not coincide with the norm, the pediatrician should give advice on how to increase hemoglobin in the baby. Depending on the degree of health, therapy will vary.

If a child who is not yet a year old has a level below 100 g/l, then it must be treated under the supervision of a doctor with appropriate medications. You can increase the coefficients above this figure yourself by adjusting your diet. Any mother should know how to increase hemoglobin levels.

To prevent the child from developing anemia or to increase iron levels if trouble has already occurred, Evgeniy Komarovsky advises taking children for walks in the fresh air more often and engaging in active games with them. Sleep should be long, it’s good for mom or dad to massage or do gymnastic exercises with the baby.

When anemia in children is in the initial stage, and this state of affairs does not yet threaten health, it is not recommended to immediately begin drug therapy. You can ask your pediatrician how to increase your child’s hemoglobin ratio at home. And here a lot depends on the diet. If the baby is breastfed, then he receives beneficial microelements from mother's milk. Therefore, a woman needs to change her diet. She needs to consume more of the following foods:

  • meat dishes, pay special attention to the liver;
  • buckwheat porridge, lentil cereals;
  • legumes;
  • various seafood;
  • all kinds of greens;
  • vegetables, berries;
  • beetroot, carrot juices.


In babies on artificial nutrition, iron from foods is not absorbed so well, for this reason it is recommended to purchase appropriate adapted infant formula.

In a child's first year of life, the body is just beginning to adapt to new living conditions. Therefore, parents often face various problems that arise in their baby. These include iron deficiency in the child’s body. But even a slight deviation of hemoglobin from the norm can cause a number of diseases, including anemia. Therefore, mothers should know how to increase the child’s hemoglobin and what it should be normally.

Pediatricians say that there is a certain age when a child’s hemoglobin levels fluctuate. This is 6 months for breastfed babies. And 4 months for children born prematurely or who are bottle-fed. It is during this period that the iron reserves accumulated in utero come to an end. And if the baby does not get enough iron from food, then he runs the risk of anemia.

Anemia in children - causes

Iron deficiency in a child’s body can be caused by a number of reasons:

Most often, it is the last point that is to blame for the fact that a child of the first year of life and older begins to have problems with hemoglobin levels.

Normal hemoglobin level in a child

The level of hemoglobin in a child’s blood should be interpreted taking into account the child’s age. So, for a baby in the first days of life the norm is 145-225 g/l, for a one-month-old baby it is 115-175 g/l, and for a one-year-old baby it is 110-145 g/l. The level of iron in the body can only be measured in a laboratory. Therefore, parents should not once again refuse tests, the results of which reliably show the presence or absence of a problem in the child. Remember, anemia is a very insidious disease, but you can cope with it if you follow all the doctor’s instructions in a timely manner.

The danger of anemia and its symptoms

Every mother knows that a lack of any microelement in the body of a baby under one year old is not the norm. But not many people know exactly why iron deficiency is dangerous.

  1. Hemoglobin and the supply of oxygen to all tissues and organs of our body are interconnected.
  2. Its deficiency entails an increase in the load on all the child’s organs, which is especially dangerous for children under one year old.
  3. Hemoglobin is necessary so that the body can fight various infections, which in the first year of life “stick” to the baby.

You can suspect anemia in a child based on some symptoms. Among them the following can be noted:

  • loss of appetite;
  • pale skin;
  • decreased activity;
  • dry skin;
  • slow hair growth and hair loss;
  • brittle nails;
  • constipation;
  • gagging after eating (in children older than one year);
  • change in the baby’s taste preferences (desire to eat earth, clay, chalk, etc.).

If you notice at least a couple of the above symptoms, do not delay visiting your pediatrician. By the way, older children (3-4 years old) begin to be delighted with the smell of gasoline, acetone and other solvents.

Diet for anemia or how to increase hemoglobin

As you know, the main cause of iron deficiency in the body is an improper diet. Therefore, it is with the help of its establishment that it is worth fighting the problem. Of course, there is no need to feed a newborn with meat and force him to drink pomegranate juice. But it’s worth making some adjustments to the menu. This should be done taking into account the age of the child.

  1. Breastfed babies up to 6 months can get iron from breast milk. Therefore, mother should enrich her own menu with this microelement.
  2. If the baby is artificial, then parents should give preference to formulas enriched with iron.
  3. You need to start complementary feeding with vegetables and cereals with a high iron content (buckwheat, Brussels sprouts and spinach).
  4. By 8 months you can begin introducing meat (chicken, beef).
  5. If the baby tolerates teas well, you can offer a rosehip decoction.

Everyone knows that there are certain foods that increase hemoglobin in children. But almost all of them must be used correctly. For example, animal foods that contain high amounts of iron (beef, turkey, chicken, organ meats and cheeses) should be consumed along with vitamin C and minerals. Without them, iron simply will not be absorbed by the body in the required volume, but will accumulate in the liver up to a certain point, which will slow down the increase in hemoglobin. The only product that combines all the necessary components to increase hemoglobin is pomegranate. Therefore, you can drink it yourself or give it to your baby.

From 5 months, pomegranate juice is diluted with water in a 1:1 ratio.

Therefore, nutritionists recommend instilling in your child a love of foods such as meat, fish, eggs, leafy greens, bread, fruits and vegetables from a very early age. All this is required by the growing body and should be present on the menu of a one-year-old baby. But parents’ newfangled passion for vegetarianism should be eradicated in the bud! Such diets will not only not make the child healthier, but will also cause an irreparable imprint on the normal functioning of the baby in the future.

In more severe cases, when hemoglobin is greatly reduced or does not increase, the doctor may prescribe iron-based medications.

Regimen and treatment of anemia

To raise the level of hemoglobin in the blood, you need not only to eat right, but also to follow a certain daily routine. The baby should get a good night's sleep, walk enough, do gymnastics and lead an active lifestyle. Compliance with the regime, proper nutrition and parental care are the key to the happiness and health of any child.

Low hemoglobin in infants is a fairly common phenomenon. There are many reasons for the development of iron deficiency anemia, these include developmental features inside the womb, hereditary pathology, previous operations, immune or infectious diseases, and anemia in the mother.

Reduced hemoglobin poses a serious danger for the physical development and general condition of the baby, so parents should know how to get rid of this disease.

To rid a baby of anemia, a mother who is breastfeeding should eat well and rationally. Its menu should include on an ongoing basis:

  1. fish and meat, beef tongue and offal, poultry;
  2. fruits (strawberries, cranberries, currants, wild strawberries and blueberries), seasonal berries (peaches, plums, persimmons, bananas, quinces), vegetables (greens, potatoes, onions, spinach, green vegetables, beets, tomatoes);
  3. porridges and grains - buckwheat, lentils and other legumes (if the child does not have tummy problems), rye, rice.

Increases the baby's hemoglobin level inclusion in the mother menu freshly squeezed juices from carrots, pomegranates or beets. You should also regularly eat eggs, seafood, dried fruits, caviar, mushrooms (in small quantities), walnuts, hematogen and dark chocolate.

Artificially fed

For children with iron deficiency anemia who are bottle-fed, we have developed special adapted mixtures, in which the iron content is increased.

But, you should not choose such food for your child on your own - the mixture can be purchased only on the recommendation of a pediatrician or children's nutritionist and only after undergoing the necessary tests and examinations.

It is recommended to start complementary feeding for children with anemia with those vegetables in which the iron content is maximum, but at the same time they can normally digested by a child- for example, you can start feeding your baby Brussels sprouts, and buckwheat is ideal for porridges.

When the child gets older and it’s time for meat feeding, it is advisable to prepare turkey, beef or chicken puree for him. Rosehip decoction and compote made from various dried fruits help to increase hemoglobin well.

If the child does not have allergies, then he can be given pomegranate juice in small quantities three times a day.

We increase hemoglobin with folk remedies

Before turning to traditional medicine recipes, you should consult with your doctor about the feasibility and safety of these methods.

Since many recipes include allergenic products, they cannot be immediately included in the child’s menu in large quantities. Such dishes and drinks Mommy herself can use it If you are breastfeeding, the baby will receive everything it needs through milk.

The most popular and effective recipes are:

  1. Juice mixture- 2 parts apple and one part each carrot and beet juice. The mixture must only be prepared, otherwise there will be no vitamins and other useful substances left in it. You should drink no more than 2 times a day.
  2. Dried apricots, peeled walnuts and raisins are mixed in equal proportions, and the mixture is twisted in a meat grinder. Add enough honey to the finished mixture to make a porridge-like mixture. Per day permissible eat up to 3 large spoons delicious and incredibly healthy home remedy for anemia.
  3. For mothers who are breastfeeding and trying to lose weight, there is amazing recipe- in the evening, pour half a glass of buckwheat into a full cup of kefir, cover the container and leave it warm until the morning. This dish helps replenish iron deficiency, improve metabolic processes and, as a bonus, get rid of constipation.
  4. For the baby you can prepare a decoction from half a liter of milk 0.5 cups of oats. The mixture is boiled over low heat for about 25-35 minutes, filtered, mixed with butter and honey (if the child is not allergic to these products). Give the baby a small spoonful of the decoction at room temperature up to 6 times a day. It is important that such a decoction cannot be stored for more than a day, fresh should be prepared daily.

In order for iron to be better absorbed, your diet must include foods that contain large amount of vitamin C. These include citrus fruits, sweet peppers, and tomatoes. Such products will help the body absorb incoming iron and quickly cope with anemia.

Komarovsky on ways to increase hemoglobin in children

To successfully combat childhood anemia, a respected doctor recommends feeding your baby breast milk and spending time with the baby at least 4 hours a day in the fresh air.

He believes that the mother should follow a reasonable diet, in no case excluding foods of animal and plant origin from the diet, in addition, the child should be introduced to meat and fruit complementary foods on time, without delay, unless there are specific indications for this.

It is unlikely that it will be possible to raise hemoglobin to a normal level with proper nutrition alone, especially if its level is extremely low.

For this reason it is necessary to take special medications, which should be prescribed by the baby’s leading pediatrician. As a rule, the course of treatment takes at least 3 months - the body needs the first two to gain iron levels, and another one to create a small reserve. At the same time, it will not be superfluous to monitor the situation - if your hemoglobin is low, you need to donate blood for analysis every 2-2.5 weeks.

With the correct, coordinated with the doctor and rational approach to treating low hemoglobin in an infant, the problem can be solved get rid of it in a few months. After completing a course of treatment, which can be combined with traditional methods and is necessary with proper nutrition, the baby will delight you with an excellent mood, activity and rapid development.