Overweight Toddlers, Those Not in Day Care at Risk of Iron Deficiency

A new study from the UT Southwestern Medical Center says that certain children, particularly overweight toddlers and children that do not go to day care, have a high risk of being deficient in iron.

The new study is to be published in 'Pediatrics' September installment. It is the first study of its kind in that is takes a look at the relationship between toddlers age between 1 and 3 being overweight and their risks of iron deficiency.

The results of the study were based on a national survey that included 1,641 toddlers. Of these toddlers it was discovered that 20 percent of the children who were overweight were also defiant in iron. This is compared to just 7 percent of toddlers that were not overweight.

The study also made a comparison of children in day care or not and iron levels. The findings showed that of the children not going to day 10 percent had low iron while only 5 percent of the children attending day care had iron deficiency.

According to UT Southwestern assistant professor of pediatrics and the head author of the new study, Dr. Jane Brotanek the results found, "Given the detrimental long-term effects and high prevalence of iron deficiency, preventing iron in early childhood is an important public health issue."

Iron deficiency can cause a number of health issues. It is a main cause of anaemia, can cause impaired muscle function and bone marrow as well has cognitive and behavioural problems in young children. This can lead to children having lower levels of achievement in school.

The data that was collected for the study came from National Health Survey IV. This was a survey conducted in the US of children between the ages of 1 and 3. Of the 1,641 children involved in the survey 25 percent were black, 28 percent were white and 42 percent were Hispanic. 12 percent of the Hispanic children were found to have iron deficiency and 6 percent of the white and black toddlers were iron deficient.