Microcytic Anaemia
Microcytic anaemia means that the red blood cells are smaller than usual. They may also be paler - called hypochromic. In the infant the most common cause is Iron deficiency. Breast milk does not contain a large amount of iron, but of what it does contain the infant absorbs 50%. Less is absorbed from cow’s milk - which is why health visitors advise mothers to avoid unmodified cow’s milk and use formula milk with added Iron if they aren’t breast-feeding. Iron deficiency can arise from blood loss in infancy from bleeding into the bowel as a result of gastritis or from a bleeding Meckel’s diverticulum (see small intestine disorders in the digestive tract section), or, in the adolescent female, as a result of heavy periods. Under normal circumstances a red blood cell lasts for 120 days. We lose Iron by losing cells from skin and the mucosal lining of the gut.
Children need between 6 and 10 mgs per day. The Iron available from red meat is more readily absorbed than the Iron available in vegetables, which needs other agents such as Vitamin C to increase its solubility. Microcytic anaemia also arises as a result of problems with the formation of the protein part of the haemoglobin, such as occurs in thalassaemia, when the Iron levels are normal.
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