New research from Sweden published in the Journal Pediatrics says recommendations should change so that babies born with marginally low birth weight received iron supplements. Marginally low birth weight babies who received iron supplements up to the age of 6 months did not develop iron deficiency or anaemia, according to findings.
Researchers from Umea University and Karolinska Institute report that their findings will hopefully lead to a change in nutrition recommendations – most children with marginally low birth weights in Sweden are considered healthy and are not given iron drops, they said. The study indicates that these children should be given iron drops, to reduce the risk of developing iron deficiency and anaemia.
According to data from the researchers, about 3.5 per cent of newborns have low birth weights, defined as a body weight less than 2.5 kg, and of these the majority had only marginally low birth weights, defined as between 2 and 2.5 kg.
At the end of the intervention, Dr Domellof and his co-workers found that 36 per cent of the children in the placebo group were iron deficient, while 10 per cent were anaemic. On the other hand, only four per cent of the children in the 2mg/kg group were iron deficient, and there was no anaemia in these children.
Interestingly, children who were fully breast-fed had the greatest risk of developing iron deficiency, said the researchers. No negative effects of the iron drops were reported by the researchers. The effects of iron deficiency will form the next stage of the research as the Swedish scientists follow the children up to the age of 7 years and test their intellectual development, the occurrence of behavioural problems, and attention problems.
