Iron Deficiency in Infants and How To Deal With it? - 3MEDS
Iron deficiency (ID) and iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) continue to be of worldwide concern. Among children in the developing world, iron is the most common single-nutrient deficiency. In industrialized nations, despite a demonstrable decline in prevalence, IDA remains a common cause of anemia in young children. Iron is a nutrient that's essential to your child's growth and development, but some kids don't have enough. 80 % of the iron present in a newborn term infant is accreted during the third trimester of pregnancy. Infants born prematurely miss this rapid accretion and are deficient in total body iron. Several maternal conditions, such as anemia, maternal hypertension with intrauterine growth restriction, or diabetes during pregnancy can also result in low fetal iron stores in both term and preterm infants Preterm Infants The deficit of total body iron in preterm infants increases with decreasing gestational age. It is worsened by the rapid postn...