The baby is 1 year old, recently always fever, we suspect that may be a lack of some kind of trace elements, want to go to do a trace element test, but have heard there are a lot of people say that the baby does not need to do a trace element test, it is very torn, in the end, is there a need to check the trace elements for the baby? Their own baby grows good or not the mother is very important, the baby cries more than, do not love to eat, hair yellow, will worry about the baby is not a lack of micronutrients. What are trace elements Generally speaking, any element that accounts for less than one ten-thousandth of the total weight of the human body, such as iron, zinc, copper, manganese, chromium, selenium, molybdenum, cobalt, fluorine and so on, is called a trace element. Iodine, zinc, selenium, copper, molybdenum, chromium, cobalt and iron are essential trace elements. Lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, aluminum, tin, and lithium are classified as potentially toxic, but may have some function at low doses. When the level of certain trace elements in the body is abnormal, it will lead to diseases, such as iron deficiency will lead to anemia, zinc deficiency will affect the appetite, excessive intake of fluoride will cause dental fluorosis, etc. This is why mothers are often worried that their babies may be deficient in trace elements. How to conduct micronutrient testing? The trace element test generally applied in medical institutions is mainly to take baby’s hair, fingertip blood and venous blood, which are the 3 types of tests to check trace elements. Is micronutrient testing necessary? Micronutrient testing for babies is not necessary! Because the collection method and environment of trace element test have a great influence on the results, which will lead to inaccurate test values. 1, hair test Hair growth and metabolism takes time, so the hair used for the test is likely to be a few weeks ago, or even a few months ago, even if the results show that many elements are deficient, it can only reflect the baby’s previous physical condition, rather than the current situation. Trace elements themselves are found in “trace” amounts in the blood! And we live in the whole environment is also full of these trace elements, to put it more directly, and even the baby’s hair shampoo residue, will affect the results. 2, fingertip blood test to take the peripheral blood of the finger, a small needle eye, and then squeeze out the blood, in the process of squeezing, will also be mixed into the blood tissue fluid, blood dilution, the results of the test value will be low. Therefore, by monitoring the calcium content in the blood, it does not accurately reflect the actual situation of calcium in the human body. 3, venous blood test Before drawing blood, the iodine and alcohol used in disinfection contain trace elements themselves. After wiping, it seems to be dry and evaporated, but the blood will still be stained with iodine or alcohol, thus affecting the value. Moreover, the current trace element test can only be used for research purposes and for monitoring the nutritional status of the population, but not for judging the nutritional status of individual trace elements. Internationally, there is no clear and uniform standard for trace element test results, and it is not possible to say that a certain value is necessarily problematic or normal, and trace element test results can only be used as one of the doctor’s references. As early as 2013, the National Health and Discipline Commission (NHDC) informed that trace elements should not be tested as part of a medical examination, especially for babies under the age of 6 months, except for tests that are necessary to detect childhood illnesses. How to determine micronutrient deficiency? In clinical practice, if the doctor needs to diagnose whether a certain trace element is abnormal, he/she will not only look at the results of a single test, but will also combine some indirect indicators to make a judgment. Calcium deficiency Apart from symptoms, the most informative clinical examination to determine whether a baby is deficient in calcium is to take a wrist X-ray, and also to check the level of vitamin D in the blood. Sometimes, the calcium in the normal range on the trace element labs does not determine that the body is not deficient in calcium. Iron Deficiency To determine whether your baby is iron deficient, the main tests are routine blood tests and iron IV. Routine blood test mainly depends on the amount of hemoglobin, and the amount of hemoglobin of babies under 6 years old is usually not less than 110g/L. Iron four tests include a. serum iron; b. serum ferritin; c. serum total iron binding capacity; d. transferrin saturation. It is usually necessary for the doctor to combine the above tests, as well as symptoms, dietary analysis, etc. to determine whether there is iron deficiency, and whether there is iron-deficiency anemia; micronutrients alone will not work. Zinc deficiency Zinc deficiency in babies can be characterized by developmental delay, poor appetite or heterophagy, and poor immunity. If your baby has these symptoms, you can check micronutrients for serum zinc levels and then combine them with dietary surveys to see if there is a risk of zinc deficiency. If serum zinc is low and dietary survey analysis reveals a risk of zinc deficiency, a preliminary diagnosis of zinc deficiency can be made. Treatment with zinc supplementation for a period of time, if the symptoms do improve, suggests that there is indeed a zinc deficiency. Therefore, if the baby does not have any symptoms, it is usually not necessary to do micronutrient tests for the baby. In fact, as long as the scientific feeding, on time to add a variety of complementary foods, the baby basically will not lack of micronutrients. Except for 400 units of vitamin D per day during the first 2 weeks of life, all other elements can be obtained from the daily diet and do not require additional supplementation.