More Infants Should Receive Iron Supplements, Researchers Urge

Prior to the process of enrichment, or the addition of vitamins to processed foods, iron deficiency was a serious problem especially in babies and young children.  Efficient iron intake has improved immensely for kids but certainly has not disappeared.  A new study explains it may be beneficial to offer iron supplements to certain newborn babies. 

Iron plays an important role in the body as it is needed not only for proper brain development but also for the production of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.  Recently it was discovered that nutritional supply and birth weight are risk factors for morbidity later in life, which became the basis of the study.

Due to the high nutrition requirements, low birth weight babies are at a greater risk of developing nutritional deficiencies with iron being no exception.  The study, to be published in the journal Pediatrics, found that giving iron supplements to marginally low birth weight babies (between 5 and 5 pounds 8 ounces) significantly reduced the risk of iron deficiency as well as anemia.  

Including 284 babies with marginally low birth weights, researchers divided the babies into three different groups giving varying amounts of iron drops including a placebo group.  Of those given the placebo (no iron), 36% had iron deficiency and 10% had iron deficiency anemia by the age of 6 months.  Yet of those babies who received the greatest amount of iron (2mg per kg of body weight daily) had only 4% iron deficiency and no anemia.  Those with the greatest risk were babies who were solely breastfeed at 6 weeks of age, as they had a 18% risk of getting iron deficiency anemia by 6 months if not given an iron supplement.

The study also found no ill effects of the iron supplementation.  Iron deficiency anemia, a condition that results from low iron, is a condition not uncommon with low birth weight or premature babies.  Iron deficiency is also associated with poor neurological development although researchers note they will continue to follow the infants in the study until age 7 where they will asses behavioral problems, attention deficit, and intellectual development- all symptoms associated with iron deficiency.