Lead Poisoning Symptoms
I want to talk about lead poisoning in this post. Lead poisoning is a bigger issue when it comes to children's health, but I think we are distracted with the recent melamine crisis. Let's not forget about lead poisoning.
Identifying lead poisoning is very hard, especially with children. They can appear perfectly healthy and fine, and yet they can have high levels of lead in their bodies. The accumulation occurs gradually over a long period of time. The obvious symptoms appear when levels become extremely high.
So what are the symptoms of lead poisoning in children, and how can we detect them?
Usually the first sign of high, toxic dose of of lead poison appear as abdominal pain and cramping. Then followed by vomiting, constipation, loss of appetite, and rapid weight loss. After that, your child may suffer from loss of sleeping and energy, feeling sluggish all day long.
Other not-so-obvious symptoms of lead poisoning include behavior or attention problems, slowed body growth, reduced IQ, irritability, loss of previous developmental skills, and reduced sensations.
The best way to protect your child from lead poisoning is prevention. Find possible sources of lead contamination and remove them. Here is a short list of places where lead is found :
- Toys painted before 1976
- Toys made outside the U.S.
- Lead fishing sinkers, lead bullets
- House paint before 1978
- Water source from contaminated pipes and faucets
- Art supplies
- Batteries
- Pewter pitchers and dinnerware
- Soldering
This is just a short list. If you know any other sources of lead that we are exposed to, please let us know by using the comment form below. Thanks for reading.
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