What are the symptoms of high lead levels in children?

Lead poisoning is particularly harmful to children's health. Lead poisoning is divided into acute lead poisoning and chronic lead poisoning. If the patient has acute lead poisoning, it is easy to cause numbness of the fingers and toes, cause anemia, and lead to fainting. The harm of chronic lead poisoning will be even greater, and will gradually manifest as children's inattention. It is particularly harmful to children's psychological development and brain development, and may even cause relatively serious sequelae.

Symptoms of lead poisoning

1. Acute lead poisoning

Children with acute lead poisoning will have a metallic taste in their mouths and milk-like substances will appear in their vomit. At the same time, due to the large amount of lead in the body, children's teeth and nails will appear black, and their fingers and toes will occasionally become numb. Anemia may occur and you may even faint.

2. Chronic lead poisoning

The main patient group for chronic lead poisoning is children aged 2-3 years old. About 3 to 6 months after they start inhaling lead, children will show obvious symptoms of lead poisoning. For example, you may feel pain in your abdomen, feel restless, and have difficulty concentrating. The central nervous system of children with this disease will be damaged to a great extent, which will affect the formation of language function and the normal development of intelligence. They may even exhibit unexplained aggressive behavior and may leave sequelae.

Causes of lead poisoning

Children absorb excessive amounts of lead, which can lead to lead poisoning. There are three main ways for lead to enter the body: respiratory tract, intestinal tract and skin.

1. Ingestion through the respiratory tract

One of the manifestations of air pollution is excessive lead dust content. Haze, as a typical representative of air pollution, contains a large amount of lead dust. In areas with heavy traffic, the intensive emission of exhaust gas from cars and buses will also rapidly increase the lead dust content in the air. Children are very likely to inhale large amounts of lead dust when going out. In addition, powdered substances such as talcum powder for children also contain lead. If parents use them improperly, children may inhale lead dust and cause lead poisoning.

2. Ingestion through the intestine

Popcorn, preserved eggs and other foods contain high levels of lead. When children consume large amounts of them, they may experience symptoms of lead poisoning. The same symptoms may occur from eating grains and vegetables contaminated with lead and drinking water contaminated with lead. If the baby is breastfed, the mother has excessive lead in her body, which can cause lead poisoning to the child through breast milk.

3. Ingestion through the skin

When mothers put on cosmetics with high lead content on their faces, their babies may ingest excessive lead and suffer from lead poisoning. In addition, in order to prevent children's skin from drying out and flaking or when engaging in outdoor activities, most parents will apply cream to their children. However, some creams contain high levels of lead, which can easily lead to excessive lead levels in children's bodies.