Meat and milk the answer to toddlers’ low iron

Increasing red meat intake or drinking iron-fortified milk can counteract falling iron levels commonly affecting toddlers, according to the latest findings from University of Otago.

The university’s department of human nutrition study co-principal investigator Dr Anne-Louise Heath said up to one-third of toddlers in Australia and New Zealand were thought to have low iron levels, which put them at higher risk of developing iron deficiency anaemia.

“Severe iron deficiency can delay brain development and may result in impaired cognitive function and behavioural problems. To safeguard against sliding into this state, it is important to find sustainable ways to prevent the decline in iron levels that often occur in the second year of life.”

The decline was thought to be due to the body’s high iron requirements during that stage of growth, combined with decreased iron intakes. However, little research had been done into toddlers’ nutrition and iron levels, so Dr Heath and colleagues conducted research to determine whether food-based strategies could be an easy and effective way to improve iron status.

Co-investigator Dr Ewa Szymlek-Gay carried out a five-month intervention trial involving 225 New Zealand toddlers and their families.

Blood measurements were taken at the beginning and end of the five month trial. The fortified milk group showed a 44 per cent increase in the concentration of ferritin, a protein that is used to estimate iron stores. Ferritin concentrations remained unchanged in the red meat group and decreased in the non-fortified milk group.

The results showed that either giving toddlers iron-fortified milk or increasing their red meat intake was likely to successfully prevent a decline in their iron stores, Dr Szymlek-Gay said.

Dr Heath said that current nutritional recommendations ideally called for increasing iron levels at that age, and replacing toddlers’ ordinary cow’s milk with fortified milk looked very promising.

“However, in practical terms, both the red meat and fortified milk approaches have their pros and cons.”

One major benefit of using iron-fortified milk was that it did not require radical changes to a toddler’s diet. On the hand, fortified mild was significantly more expensive, said Dr Heath.

“The benefit of taking the red meat approach is that it is inexpensive, and preventing the decline in iron stores should only require a relatively small increase in the amount toddlers eat daily.”

The findings were published online by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the most highly rated peer-reviewed journal in the nutrition and dietetics category.