Effect of supplementation with an iron-fortified milk on incidence of diarrhea and respiratory infection in urban-resident infants

Abstract

To address the hypothesis that increased infectious morbidity is associated with iron supplementation, 783 randomly selected infants were provided with a powdered full fat cow's milk (non-fortified group). and 872 with a powdered acidified full fat cow's milk fortified with 15 mg of iron as ferrous sulfate (fortified group). All infants were followed from birth to 15 months of age with a monthly home visit by a nurse who recorded morbidity occurring during the previous 30 days. At 9 months of age, 15% of infants in each cohort were receiving breast milk only; data for these infants were segregated to make the third group. Episodes (mean ± SD) of diarrhea/infant/year were 1.06 ± 1.29, 1.14 ± 1.37, and 0.82 ± 1.04 for the fortified, non-fortified and breast-fed groups, respectively; the fortified and non-fortified bottle-fed groups had a very similar incidence of respiratory illness; 2.66 ± 2.07 and 2.74 ± 2.24 episodes/infant/year, respectively. The incidence of respiratory illness for