The hemoglobin level indicates any standard blood test. To understand what a high hemoglobin level, you must first know what is the norm. Hemoglobin levels in children varies depending on age. This indicator helps to diagnose the overall health of the circulatory system. The level of hemoglobin in the blood is measured in grams / deciliter (g / dL). The rate for children is as follows:
- Newborns: 17-22 g / dl
- Children aged 1 week: 15-20 g / dl
- Children aged 1 month: 11-15 g / dl
- Older children: 11-13 g / dl
According to studies, children born with high levels of hemoglobin and subsequently receiving infant formula fortified with iron, long-term development results were worse than children whose hemoglobin level was lower than originally.
Ten-year studies of the development of children showed that a six-month high hemoglobin children receiving iron-fortified infant formula, the development is slower.
In recent years, products enriched with iron, has established itself as an effective tool for iron deficiency anemia, as well as other forms of iron deficiency in infants. But what is the optimal iron content, particularly in the dairy mixture
Dairy mixture - selection of useful power
, not yet known. In addition, the results of research carried out earlier and related iron deficiency and speed the development of newborns, were contradictory.
Research
The present study is a continuation of a randomized controlled trial conducted in Chile, in Santiago, from 1991 to 1994. The six-month children randomly assigned infant formula fortified with iron (on average 12, 7 mg / l), or a mixture of containing a small amount of iron (on average 2 to 3 mg / l).
The primary study involved healthy full-term babies born in public hospitals, and 835 of them passed the test to the end. At the age of 10 years, 473 subjects (56, 6%) were subjected to research. Of these, 244 (56, 7%) were originally in the group receiving the mixture in a high iron content, and 229 (56, 5%) - group in which the mixture was allowed to reduced iron. A study conducted at the age of ten, involves testing the level of intelligence (Wechsler intelligence test for children), spatial memory, arithmetic ability, visual-motor integration, visual perception and motor functions.
As compared with the group receiving the mixture from the reduced amount of the iron group, which gave a mixture enriched with iron, showed lower results in all respects. At the same time the worst results relate to the spatial memory and visual-motor integration. The researchers say that these results showed suggestive trends in IQ, aptitude for arithmetic, visual perception and motor coordination (1, 4-4, 6 points below the magnitude of the effect, 0, 13-0.21).
Children who at the age of six months was observed a high level of hemoglobin (more than 12 8 g / dL) according to the parameters had lower results if they had previously received a mixture enriched with iron (10, 7-19, 3 points below the high value of the effect of 0, 85-1, 36).
Children with low hemoglobin aged six months (at least 10, 5 g / dl) was removed from the study conducted some benefit (2, 6-4, 5 points higher). The effect of this was a small but significant.
At 5, 5% of the subjects had revealed a high level of hemoglobin (n = 26), 18, 4% showed low hemoglobin levels (n = 87).
According to scientists, in the course of a decade of research involving children, there were no statistically significant differences in iron content between the two groups, with only one child discovered iron-deficiency anemia. Nine infants from the group receiving the mixture with a low content of iron, and 17 of the group receiving the iron-enriched mixture meets the criteria of iron deficiency.
One possible explanation for slow development of children with high levels of hemoglobin, by assumption, scholars, is that the food additive
Food additives - basic classification
could have an adverse effect on the development of their nervous system. However, in their opinion, this explanation assumes that the children involved in the study and have a high level of hemoglobin in infancy had a deficit of iron.
The main limitation of the study was attended by a small number of children with elevated levels of hemoglobin as possible. In addition, before randomization, hemoglobin level was the only way to determine the iron content of all infants.
In the case of reproducing this study require an analysis to determine the level of hemoglobin and / or other indicators of body iron content in early childhood before infants will produce iron-enriched mixture. In addition, it is necessary to revise the recommendations relating to the reception of universal iron supplementation. A group of scientists came to the conclusion that to determine the optimal level of iron in infant formula is required to conduct additional studies.
The relationship between iron deficiency, iron deficiency anemia
Iron deficiency anemia: how dangerous it is?
and development, remains controversial.
For example, further research conducted in Thailand, during which a period of six months to infants (ages four to six months) daily was given iron (10 mg), zinc (10 mg) and food supplements enriched in iron and zinc, nine years It did not reveal any differences in general, including the development and verbal IQ, compared with the development of infants receiving placebo
Placebo - an effective tool for self-hypnosis
.
While this is the only evidence of a negative impact on the development of children with high levels of hemoglobin, if we consider the group of children receiving early childhood mixture enriched with iron, and a group receiving a mixture with low iron content.
