I know all about the Child Magazine article and I wasn't real happy with it.


The last issue of Family Circle also had an article about the need for iron
formula.  Under Medical News was the blip:

Your Baby Needs Iron
Low-iron infant formula continues to be manufactered and sold, despite the
fact that the iron-fortified kind protects against anemia. Parents: Be sure
to buy iron-fortified formula.  American Academy of Pediatrics  - Margit
Feury

My reply to them was:
I am writing in response to the small article in Medical News entitled Your
Baby Needs Iron.  What you have written is true but does not tell the whole
story.  Babies who are breastfed and who receive formula, for whatever
reason, may want to consider the low-iron formulas.
There is a protein in breastmilk called lactoferrin that works with certain
anitbodies to help protect the bowels from infection due to an overgrowth of
e-coli, the major cause of bowel infection in infants.  Lactoferrin is an
iron-binding protein and if too much iron is consumed the protein will bind
with the iron and the amount of protection is decreased.  The iron in
breastmilk is better absorbed and when considered along with the iron the
baby has stored, it is sufficient for the first six months of life.  Since
formula does not contain lactoferrin and the iron is absorbed less
efficiently than in breast milk, iron fortified formula is usually advised.

(J.J. Bullen et al. Iron-bindin Proteins in Milk and Resistence to
Escherichis coli Infection in Infants, British Medical Journal, 69:69-77,
January 1971.)


Does anyone know if the AAP recommends iron-fortified formula for
breastfeeding infants as well?

Diane Karnbach, LLLL