EFFECT OF DAILY VS WEEKLY IRON
SUPPLEMENTATION ON IRON STATUS IN EXCLUSIVE BREAST-FED INFANTS
Yurdakök K,
Temiz F, Yalçın SS, Gümrük F
Ihsan Doğramacı
Children’s Hospital, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
Objective:
Iron
deficiency anemia (IDA) remains the most prevalent nutritional deficiency worldwide.
Infants are main target for iron supplementation to prevent the adverse
effects of IDA on cognitive and psychomotor development of infancy. The
purpose of study was to determine the effectiveness of daily vs weekly iron
supplementation in the prevention of IDA in exclusively breast fed infants
in Well Baby Center.
Methods: Exclusive breast-fed
healthy infants, 4 mo of age, were taken for the randomized, controlled
trial if their mother intended to continue exclusive breast-feeding until
the infants were 6 months. Infants or their mother who had iron deficiency
or IDA on admission were excluded. The infants (n=79) were randomly
distributed among three groups, the first group receiving daily (1 mg/kg/d),
the second group weekly (7 mg/kg/wk) and the third group no iron
supplementation for three months. All infants were followed weekly by phone
for compliance. Hemoglobin, serum iron, serum iron binding capacity and
serum ferritin of mother and infant were examined on admission, at the
sixth and the seventh months.
Results: During study period,
occurrence of IDA was similar among groups (26 % in daily group, 13.6 % in
weekly group, 31.8 % in control group, p>0.05). Both hematologic
parameters and antropometric measurement were similar among groups during
study period. Infant whose mothers had IDA during study period, also had
iron deficiency (k=0,79). In all groups,
the mean levels of serum ferritin were significantly increased from 6 mo to
7 mo of age when weaning started.
Conclusion:
In this
study with limited number of cases we observed that weekly or daily
supplementation didn’t decrease in the occurrence of IDA so they are
equally ineffective.
Exclusively breast-fed infants with maternal IDA appeared to be at
increased risk of developing IDA. So maternal supplementation should be
studied in exclusively breast-fed infants.