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There is no safe level of lead to have in your child’s body. The CDC recommendation is the be less than 3.5 ug/dL, which is checked with blood work at 12 and 24 months of age. Having elevated levels over time will result in toxic effects.
The effects lead has on children can be silent and unnoticeable at first. Children may not seem sick. The symptoms may be mistaken for other illnesses. Lead is a neurotoxin, which means it can have devastating and long-lasting effects on the brain and nervous system of children.
Initial symptoms may include being irritable, tired or fatigued, having pain in the belly, being constipated or not having much of an appetite. While these can begin very vague and slow, they can build up to be more serious problems.
The brain and nervous system control so many functions of the body. Think of it as the computer. When your computer isn’t working it can be slow, it can act up, and its parts can stop functioning. The same concept applies to lead poisoning and the child’s brain. Elevated lead can cause learning disabilities in children. You may begin to see behavioral problems like not paying attention and having trouble in social setting or sharing. Lead exposure can result in lower IQ scores. These can become permanent damage and cause seizures, hearing and speech problems and slowed growth and development.
There can be harmful effects to other organs in a child exposed to lead. One role of the liver and kidneys is to work as a filter for the body. Lead is a heavy metal. Imagine when your air filter gets plugged with dirt and debris, the air doesn’t flow as well. When the liver and kidneys are forced to try and filter lead, they do not function properly and are not able to filter blood and do the other important tasks they were designed to do like maintain pH and chemical balances, regulate blood pressure and aid in digestion and immunity.
The effects of lead on children can be a silent danger. The exposure and the symptoms are not always easily discovered. However, with routine screening at 12 and 24 months old, and being observant of what your child ingests and has exposure to, lead poisoning has a better chance of being corrected when caught early and even avoided.
