By Dr John Mutumba & Benardate Okiria Apio
As a parent, you find yourself worrying constantly when you have an anaemic child.
Questions like, ‘has she skipped her meals’, ‘has she eaten a balanced diet’, has she eaten fruits and vegetables’, will often run through your mind.
However, the good news is that there is always an easier way to avoid such pressure.
Anaemia is a deficiency in the size or number of red blood cells or the amount of haemoglobin the red blood cells contain.
Iron deficiency anaemia signs and symptoms include pale skin, the inside of lower eyelids appears pink instead of red, tiredness, headaches, tongue soreness, and pica (an eating disorder where a person eats things not usually considered food).
Whereas the causes are not limited to poor diets, healthier feeding practices and food choices are essential to preventing iron deficiency anaemia.
When it comes to adolescent girls, iron requirements are highest after the onset of menstruation, besides the already high iron demand amongst teenagers.
Iron deficiency anaemia may affect your child’s immune response to fighting infections, mental ability in learning and attention span including short -term memory.
In other words, their class performance, problem-solving skills and decision-making skills depend on whether they are eating an iron rich diet.
What to do as a parent
Parents need to improve the food environment at home and educate their children on healthy food practices and choices.
Explain benefits of eating healthier meals to motivate them to follow through while you are away. Please do not indulge in force feeding, it can be counter intuitive.
- Start with meals
As a general rule, include a variety of food groups for any one meal.
This increases the intake of micronutrients like iron, which is key in increasing red blood cell volume and iron lost during menstruation for the case of girls.
Ensure children take a minimum of five food groups in a day.
Dark green leafy vegetables are a rich source of iron and locally available vegetables such as emalakany, eboo, sukuma-wiki, doodo, bugga, nakati, ejjobyo.
Meals inclusive of animal source foods increase intake of haem-iron essential for production of haemoglobin.
Meats, poultry and fish can easily be added to food recipes. Locally available sources include mukene (silver fish), legume dishes such as beans.
Fruits for Vitamin C at every meal improve absorption of iron. Citrus fruits like oranges, pineapples, mangoes and lemons, are rich sources of iron.
Snacking should never substitute meals. Provide nutrient dense snacks by replacing processed food items with fruits, nuts or protein rich foods. For example try yellow bananas, ground nuts, and eggs. - Limit sugar intake
Limit intake of sugary energy drinks or heavily fried foods because these are low in micro-nutrients.
While cooking, use conservative cooking methods. A balance in cooking methods for meals prepared is necessary.
Cooking methods such as steaming, poaching, sautéing, stir frying will preserve micro nutrients in food. - Food behaviour
With the exception of these past two years during Covid-19 lockdown, children spend most of their life at school.
Therefore, the food environment at school is key in shaping healthy food eating behaviour. As a parent, you need to be involved.
Advocate for simple rules that encourage cleaning up food environments at school, starting with school management committees.
Remember to provide access to nutrition education for your child through visiting nutritionists.
Access to nutrition education and counselling for your child through health clubs must be routinely done by the school nurses.
While taking the child to school, ensure to add multiple foods like millet porridge, which is a source of iron.
Beware of the ‘corporate enemy’ of healthy eating. Those sports events at school sponsored by a soda or energy drink company are not your ally in this struggle.
These companies’ strategy of promoting exercise is used to blindside you to the dangers of sugar addiction in children.
Therefore, as parents advocate for healthy food spaces, starting at lowest levels of administration.
Fast food restaurants or joints in or near school offering junk and soda can be distanced.
Engaging children in learning how to grow vegetables is necessary to promote benefits of eating vegetables at each meal.
Take the child to a school that has and makes use of their orchard. This at least guarantees access to fruits and vegetables.
Healthy eating for teenagers is essential, and simpler actions can be taken by parents to promote it.
Prevent anaemia to promote healthy growing for your teenage child.
