Iron intake and iron nutritional status of infants fed iron-fortified beikost with meat

We compared iron intake and iron nutritional status of two groups of healthy term infants who received meat-containing baby foods fortified with ferrous sulphate (2 mg Fe/100 g). One group received an Fe-fortified formula (1.6 mg Fe/100 kcal) and the other a nonfortified formula. Fe intake of the group fed the nonfortified formula was significantly lower (p less than 0.0001). These infants received Fe mainly from fortification Fe with beikost (75-86%) and less than 10% met the recommended intake of 1 mg.kg-1.d-1; whereas 80-85% of the infants fed the Fe-fortified formula did. Hb, Hct, FEP, and ferritin were similar in both groups with the exception of lower ferritin values at age 365 d (p less than 0.05) in the group fed the nonfortified formula. No infant had hemoglobin less than 100 g/L. We conclude that regular consumption of commercially prepared Fe-fortified beikost with meat prevents most healthy term infants from Fe deficiency even if Fe intake is substantially below the recommended intake.