B12 Deficiency in Kids – Are You Missing It?

If there is one thing in clinic with babies and kids that makes me nervous, it is when they are floppy with low tone.

The implications are not good, but one thing that is more common now than before as a cause, is our old friend vitamin B12 deficiency.

The reality is people’s diets are awful, loaded up on highly processed junk food.

Plus, we have people removing the only real source of B12 in their diet, animal products.

The reality is, we need:

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After all, you are just a series of pathways with constant recycling.

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And if your mother is not eating it, you can’t get the full benefits of B12’s unique role in two key enzymes.

If they are eating it but not absorbing it, baby gets less.

Remember we have a education section on the https://inhealthsupplements.co.uk site now, just register and you can view.

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Methylation makes MYELIN, can we agree this is pretty important for a baby/young child?

So how might they present to clinic (yours or a GP surgery)?

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38 patients ranging from months old to 17 years.

B12 tested, plus haemoglobin – remember in theory, as B12 goes down, the size of your red blood cells (RBC’s) goes up and you get MACROCYTIC anaemia and rasied mean cell volume (MCV).

Thus, the NHS will often use a full blood count to look for large cells as an indirect test of B12.

It is clearly stated in the NHS guidance that this is not a good idea and direct testing should be done.

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This is very important as in the study the vast majority of the subjects were not anaemic.

The symptoms that brought that in:

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Think about those for a while, a toddler/child with ataxia, or a bay with low tone ,that is pretty scary, but the NHS will be interested and should (theoretically find) find it.

But think about dizziness or tingling sensations, is that going to trigger a full MOT at the GP? maybe, maybe not.

Teenager with fatigue (not anaemic remember) and concentration difficulty and headache, that could easily go undiagnosed.

If you want to be a clinician, not a therapist you need to know this stuff.

And the results?

All blood levels normalised and so did the symptoms within one month.

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This about that. 

I do not care how good you are at adjusting people’s spines or cranium, if the symptoms are coming from B12 deficiency, you can talk till the cows come home about your theory on health, you have missed the diagnosis and failed your patient. 

And yes, kids can take the B12 sublinguals they yaste yummy, I give my kids one every few weeks to top them up.