Electrodes were placed on the children's scalps to measure their response time to the tests. In one test children had to respond to a clicking sound and in the other to a visual signal. The tests proved that the reaction time in the kids who had been iron deficient was slower, Lozoff says. She and her colleagues believe that the lack of iron in infancy disrupts the production of myelin in a child's brain. Myelin sheaths cover nerve cells and help the cells transmit signals more rapidly from the brain to the body or from the body to the brain.
Nerve cells can send signals without myelin, but the transmission rate is slower.
And, because most myelin is produced when children are still infants, the researchers think the iron shortfall these kids had occurred during a crucial period of myelin production. Lozoff presented her findings at the joint meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Pediatric Academic Societies on April 30, 2001. What To Do Iron deficiency is a readily preventable condition. If you're feeding using baby formula, make sure it contains iron, and until the baby is at least 1 year old, don't offer cow's milk. Besides having no iron, it can actually cause intestinal bleeding in infants, which worsens iron deficiency, Steinberg says.