Severe iron deficiency anemia in an infant: A case report

Abstract

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common nutritional deficiency disorder in children and is worldwide in distribution. In fact, iron deficiency is the only micronutrient deficiency that is prevalent in virtually all developed countries. An infant is predominantly fed on milk, bioavailability of breast milk is much better than cow’s milk; although both are deficient in iron content. The peak prevalence of nutritional IDA occurs in late infancy and very rarely seen before the age of 6 months in a term baby who is exclusively breastfed. We report a case of severe IDA in a 6-month-old child in whom no other obvious cause was found.