Limited evidence suggested that iron supplementation produced a small improvement in cognitive development but had no effect on physical growth .
CONCLUSIONS : In 2 to 5 year olds , daily iron supplementation increases hemoglobin and ferritin .
There is a concerning lack of data on the effect of iron supplementation on clinical ly important outcomes including anemia , ID anemia , ID , and cognitive development .
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES : Iron deficiency ( ID ) is the most common cause of anemia worldwide .
The prevalence is highest among preschool-aged children .
Iron is widely administered to children with or at risk for ID , but evidence of benefit among 2- to 5-year-old children has not been evaluated by systematic review .
We summarize the evidence for the benefit and safety of daily iron supplementation with regard to hematologic , growth , and cognitive parameters in 2 to 5 year olds .
Breastfeeding and child cognitive development: new evidence from a large randomized trial.
CONTEXT The evidence that breastfeeding improves cognitive development is based almost entirely on observational studies and is thus prone to confounding by subtle behavioral differences in the breastfeeding mother 's behavior or her interaction with the infant . OBJECTIVE To assess whether prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding improves children 's cognitive ability at age 6.5 years . DESIGN Cluster-r and omized trial , with enrollment from June 17 , 1996 , to December 31 , 1997 , and follow-up from December 21 , 2002 , to April 27 , 2005 . SETTING Thirty-one Belarussian maternity hospitals and their affiliated polyclinics . PARTICIPANTS A total of 17,046 healthy breastfeeding infants were enrolled , of whom 13,889 ( 81.5 % ) were followed up at age 6.5 years . INTERVENTION Breastfeeding promotion intervention modeled on the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative by the World Health Organization and UNICEF . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Subtest and IQ scores on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence , and teacher evaluations of academic performance in reading , writing , mathematics , and other subjects . RESULTS The experimental intervention led to a large increase in exclusive breastfeeding at age 3 months ( 43.3 % for the experimental group vs 6.4 % for the control group ; P < .001 ) and a significantly higher prevalence of any breastfeeding at all ages up to and including 12 months . The experimental group had higher means on all of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence measures , with cluster-adjusted mean differences ( 95 % confidence intervals ) of + 7.5 ( + 0.8 to + 14.3 ) for verbal IQ , + 2.9 ( -3.3 to + 9.1 ) for performance IQ , and + 5.9 ( -1.0 to + 12.8 ) for full-scale IQ . Teachers ' academic ratings were significantly higher in the experimental group for both reading and writing . CONCLUSION These results , based on the largest r and omized trial ever conducted in the area of human lactation , provide strong evidence that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding improves children 's cognitive development . TRIAL REGISTRATION is rct n.org Identifier : IS RCT N37687716
Limited evidence suggested that iron supplementation produced a small improvement in cognitive development but had no effect on physical growth .
CONCLUSIONS : In 2 to 5 year olds , daily iron supplementation increases hemoglobin and ferritin .
There is a concerning lack of data on the effect of iron supplementation on clinical ly important outcomes including anemia , ID anemia , ID , and cognitive development .
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES : Iron deficiency ( ID ) is the most common cause of anemia worldwide .
The prevalence is highest among preschool-aged children .
Iron is widely administered to children with or at risk for ID , but evidence of benefit among 2- to 5-year-old children has not been evaluated by systematic review .
We summarize the evidence for the benefit and safety of daily iron supplementation with regard to hematologic , growth , and cognitive parameters in 2 to 5 year olds .