Infants who are born at term usually have sufficient iron stores for 4 to 6 months. However, since breast milk contains very little iron, breastfed infants are at risk of iron deficiency by age 6 months and should receive an iron supplement beginning at age 4 months.
The ABFM puts it this way, “Healthy full-term infants receive 60%–80% of their iron stores from their mothers during the third trimester of pregnancy. Thus, even an exclusively breastfed infant will not typically be at risk of developing iron deficiency anemia until the age of 4 months. Iron supplementation should then be started and continued until the child is eating foods containing sufficient dietary iron. Preterm babies who are exclusively breastfed should begin iron supplementation at 1 month of age due to a foreshortened third trimester.”
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Iron supplementation for preterm babies.
According to the guidelines of the AAP, elemental iron supplementation (2mg/kg per day) should begin at 1 month of age for exclusively breastfed infants born before 37 weeks gestation and should continue until 12 months of age, unless the infant had multiple blood transfusions.
According to the guidelines of the AAP, elemental iron supplementation (2mg/kg per day) should begin at 1 month of age for exclusively breastfed infants born before 37 weeks gestation and should continue until 12 months of age, unless the infant had multiple blood transfusions.