How many licks would it take? Can the iron in bars even be processed by the body? Can you do this for other minerals?

  • @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    Not necessarily licking (I mean, if you do it enough…), but this is a thing

    Cool story with interesting social, cultural, and scientific interactions.

    It may have been discredited outside of simple iron deficiency since I last read about it, but dietary studies on humans are notoriously difficult to do.

    • body_by_make
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      910 months ago

      We used one of these with our daughter when she had a concerning iron deficiency. I’m not super sure if it helped since we also started feeding her more iron containing foods, but it didn’t hurt 🤷‍♂️

      • @[email protected]
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        310 months ago

        This specific thing? Or just an iron chunk of some type?

        The reason I know about this is the social aspect of trying to get people with endemic iron deficiency to use a supplement. If you’re from the more industrialized would, I’d figure you’d take supplements that, while more expensive, may or may not be more effective.

        • body_by_make
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          10 months ago

          Our daughter was less than 12 months old and had a cow milk protein allergy that was causing her to throw up most of the formula we were giving her (the allergy took us a while to figure out). We opted for trying to improve iron intake before going to pills, though if she was still deficient at her next check up that would have been what we did.

            • body_by_make
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              310 months ago

              My wife and I still prefer dietary changes to medicine when applicable

              • @[email protected]
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                -310 months ago

                You should change your thought process and listen to the experts.

                They also would have recommended dietary changes if they actually were applicable. It is this kind of belief that leads to increased harm and is solely the reason why so many children are being harmed and killed by extremely preventable causes.

                I’m not accusing you of being someone as heinous as an antivaxxer, but this is the thought process that leads people down that path.

                • @[email protected]
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                  10 months ago

                  Im pretty sure the experts already talked with them back when the kid was having the problems

                  And for infants, doctors also prefer dietary changes before medicine, for incredibly obvious reasons

                • body_by_make
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                  310 months ago

                  Trust me, I’m nowhere near an antivaxxer, if the pediatrician pushed even slightly harder for medicine as the solution then we’d have gone that way from the start. They were fine with us trying diet adjustments first and doing another visit soon after to see if the issue was resolved (it was).

                  I understand the concern though.

                  • @[email protected]
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                    010 months ago

                    I do. I also have a PhD from a medical school. That’s why I know if eating less milk were the best solution for this individual, they would have said that.

                    Managing parents’ anxieties is a major part of being a pediatrician. You don’t suggest things that might scare parents when they are not necessary.