Academy Recommendations and Public Health Regulations

I was pleased to read in the recent article by Beal et al. (Pediatrics, 30:518, 1963) that from the results of their observations they found no contraindication to the important principle of artificial iron supplementation with fortified cereals during the first year of life as a prophylaxis of iron deficiency. Although there is an inconsequential difference of opinion as to whether the daily intake of iron should be 0.5 or 1.0 mg, or even 1.5 mg/kg/day, it is not surprising in such a small and selected series as that studied by Beal et al. and in a series where the only measurement of iron nutrition was the hemoglobin determination, that most hemoglobin levels should be found in the normal range even with iron intakes on the lower end of the scale.