Is it okay for babies to get calcium injections?

If the baby is not severely calcium deficient, calcium supplement injections are not recommended. Any drug treatment has side effects. You can eat more calcium-rich foods, or take things like cod liver oil that promote calcium absorption. We all know that if a baby lacks calcium, it is likely to cause rickets. The calcium obtained from food is usually sufficient for the baby's physical development. You can also take some calcium tablets under the guidance of a doctor.

Pediatricians who often see parents say that some parents say, "Doctor, our child is calcium deficient, it would be best to give him an injection" as soon as they enter the clinic. Once a child is diagnosed with rickets, parents are often very nervous. They think that since the child is calcium deficient, he or she should be given calcium injections. Vitamin D is a treatment for rickets because it aids in the absorption of calcium.

However, if the diagnosis of rickets is inaccurate, blindly using vitamin D for treatment, or increasing the dose of injection for children who have been diagnosed with rickets, will not only seriously affect the normal growth and development of children, but will also cause symptoms of poisoning, which will aggravate the severity of rickets. It is currently recognized by countries around the world that the recommended daily intake of vitamin D for children of all ages is 400 international units.

If children's faces and hands are exposed directly to ultraviolet rays from sunlight for half an hour every day, rickets can be prevented. For some large cities with serious coal smoke and oil fume pollution, 2 hours of exposure per day is required. Ultraviolet rays in the shade in summer can also achieve this purpose. Be sure to open the windows for sunbathing in winter because ultraviolet rays cannot pass through glass windows. Some parents think that rickets symptoms will be relieved after vitamin D injection, so they continue to inject it on their own initiative. However, vitamin D is not a nutritional supplement but a precursor of a hormone that can be stored in the body, has a long half-life, and is more likely to cause poisoning when taken by injection than orally. Symptoms of vitamin D excess include decreased appetite, nausea, vomiting, constipation or diarrhea, frequent urination, weight loss, sweating, irritability, low fever, etc. Blood calcium and urine calcium increase, and abnormal calcification may occur in organs such as the kidneys, brain, heart, and lungs.

It is worth noting that excessive sweating and easy fright are often considered to be calcium deficiency, and increasing the dosage of vitamin D can easily create a vicious cycle. Therefore, it is recommended to absorb vitamin D naturally through sunlight and mainly through oral administration. When taking oral calcium supplements, it is important to consider that infancy is a critical period for the development of the baby's taste buds and the formation of taste preferences. Too many or too strong flavors will affect the development of the baby's taste buds and lead to picky eating. Therefore, when choosing calcium for your baby, you should consider the development characteristics of their taste buds. Do not choose calcium supplements that are too sour or too sweet. Calcium supplements that are natural and tasteless or have a light milk flavor similar to breast milk are best.