Maternal and Infant Iron Status and First Year Illness

Abstract

Abstract The primary research aims were to understand the relationship between maternal postpartum body iron and birth and 4-month infant body iron and to determine if maternal or newborn iron status was a predictor of first year illness. Subjects were 199 pregnant women and their infants. Subjects were a convenience sample from a phase III randomized controlled trial that studied docosahexanoic acid during pregnancy. Medical records and adverse events from parent reports provided incidence of first year illnesses. Blood was obtained for the primary study and analyzed for iron values used in the secondary analysis. Maternal iron status was determined by 28-week hemoglobin, postpartum plasma ferritin, and postpartum plasma transferrin receptor; and infant iron status was determined by plasma transferrin receptor and plasma ferritin from cord blood and 4-month blood. Maternal postpartum body iron was not correlated with neonatal body iron from cord blood or infant blood at 4-months. Maternal postpartum plasma ferritin was inversely correlated with infant body iron at 4-months (r=-.229, p=.029). Newborn body iron correlated with 4-month body iron (r=.240, p=.047). We found a small but significant inverse relationship between maternal iron status at delivery and infant iron status at 4-months. We did not find a significant relationship between maternal or infant iron status and incidence of first year illness.