Some but not all breast‐fed infants benefit from iron supplementation

• Published in: The FASEB Journal
• Main Author: Friel, James Kenneth
• Other Authors: Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2010
• Subjects: Canada; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.556.17

Full‐term healthy breast‐fed infants in Newfoundland Canada have previously been shown to benefit from iron supplements early in infancy by increasing developmental motor scores (Friel et al., J. Pediatrics, 2003). To test this hypothesis in another Canadian province, 82 infants in Manitoba were randomized to receive 7.5 mg of supplemental iron as ferrous sulphate (I) or placebo (P) once a day from 1 to 6 months of age. All infants were breast‐fed at one month of age and were encouraged to continue exclusive breast‐feeding to 6 months before introducing solid foods. Blood samples were collected by venipuncture at 4 and 12 months of age. Anthropometric and demographic data was collected at 1, 4, 6 and 12 months of age when a Bayley Developmental assessment was conducted. Although P infants weighed more at birth (P: 3.63 ± 0.4 vs. I: 3.42 ± 0.5 kg P<0.05) this difference did not persist after one month of age. At 4 months ferritin (I: 110 ± 91 vs. P: 75 ± 48) was higher and transferrin receptors (I: 20 ± 4.4 vs. P: 22 ± 6) were lower in the iron‐supplemented group. At 4 months GPx was higher (I: 10.7 ± 3 vs. P: 9.3 ± 2) which did not persist to 12 months. Bayley MDI (P: 99 ± 9 vs. I: 97 ± 10) and PDI (P: 91 ± 14 vs. I: 92 ± 14) did not differ. These results suggest that full‐term healthy breast fed infants from an advantaged population will increase iron stores when given iron supplements with no adverse effects on growth but gain no advantage for developmental outcome at one year. Supported by CIHR and MICH.