Babies with low iron levels grow up impaired-study

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Children who had low levels of iron as infants grow up with brain deficiencies -- even if they get early treatment, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. A study of 185 Costa Rican teenagers shows that babies with the worst iron deficiency never recovered on tests of learning, memory and thinking and the poorest of these children worsened as they got older. The report, published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, shows the importance of early nutrition for babies, the researchers said. "If direct and indirect effects of early iron deficiency on the brain disrupted or delayed basic developmental processes, there could be a snowball effect," said Dr. Betsy Lozoff of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who led the study.

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