The weanling: iron for all or one

Abstract

Mild iron deficiency remains to be a problem of healthy infants even in Europe. In this paper we discuss some of the potential reasons. There are physiological variations which result in elevated need of iron during infancy. These include growth that is unusually rapid, change in hemoglobin level from low normal to high normal and quality of milk nutrition during infancy. Prolonged exclusive breast feeding is a particularly interesting mode of nutrition since the iron absorption seems to be extremely effective. Infants may compensate their increased needs of iron either by stimulation of intestinal absorption of iron or of mobilization of iron from the relatively large tissue stores. We conclude that healthy full-term infants need to be fed with iron supplemented infant milk formulas or solid foods fortified with iron to order guarantee an optimal iron nutrition.