The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7228 p837
14 December 2002

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Pharmacists can educate parents about risks associated with iron deficiency

Pharmacists and other health care professionals should be aware of the risks associated with iron deficiency in infants and can help educate parents about the problem. This was one of the messages to come out of a national conference about iron deficiency (BBC link) held in London earlier this week.

Dr Anita MacDonald, head of dietetic research at Birmingham Children's Hospital, explained that healthy full-term infants require little dietary iron in the first six months of life. However, between seven and 12 months they require nearly as much as adults. "These requirements are high and are difficult to achieve," she said. There is good evidence to show that most children do not achieve the recommended daily intake of iron. One of the problems contributing to the high incidence of iron deficiency is the practice of introducting cows' milk into a child's diet too soon.

"Currently we recommend that all babies receive breast milk or formula milk until they are 12 months old," she said. Breast milk contains relatively small amounts of iron but that the iron is well utilised by infants. "However, solely breast-fed babies can develop iron deficiency if mothers do not introduce iron-rich foods [such as meat and cereals] into their diet," she said.