Effectiveness of iron-fortified infant cereal in prevention of iron deficiency anemia.

Background. Iron deficiency continues to be a common problem among infants throughout the world. Iron-fortified formula is effective in preventing iron deficiency but the benefit of iron-fortified cereal is controversial. Methods. We compared iron-fortified rice cereal to unfortified rice cereal in infants who were exclusively breast-fed for more than 4 months and to iron-fortified formula in infants who were weaned to formula before 4 months of age. The design was double blind in respect to the presence or absence of fortification iron in the cereal or formula and included 515 infants who were followed on the protocol from 4 to 15 months of age