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Higher serum ferritin levels found in infants given complementary foods
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Infants who were given complementary foods besides breast-milk had higher serum ferritin levels than infants who did not receive complementary foods, but the significance of these findings demands further study, according to study data published online.
Ronald E. Kleinman, MD, of Harvard Medical School, and colleagues from the National University Hospital of Iceland conducted a study of 119 infants who received either complementary foods besides breast-milk from age 4 months (CF) or breast-milk alone for 6 months.
One hundred infants (84%) completed the trial. Infants in the CF group had higher mean serum ferritin (SF) levels at aged 6 months (P=.02), but no difference was seen between groups in iron deficiency anemia, iron deficiency or iron depletion.
According to the researchers, they could not measure baseline iron levels, which they said was a study limitation.
“In this study, conducted in an urban setting in a high-income country, the biological significance of the higher SF levels among those infants who began complementary feeding at 4 months of age remains to be determined,” the researchers concluded.
Disclosure:The Eimskip Fund for PhD students at the University of Iceland and Mead Johnson provided funding for the study. The sponsors of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, preparation of the report or the decision to submit for publication.
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