The treatment of nutritional anemia in infancy and childhood with oral iron and ascorbic acid

Abstract

The subject of nutritional anemiain infancy and childhood is reviewed, with emphasis on the etiology, the pathogenesis, and the mechanisms of iron metabolism involved. In twenty infants and children with severe nutritional anemia, satisfactory therapeutic results were obtained when oral iron was administered. Every other patient in this series received large doses of ascrobic acid additionally which improved the response to iron therapy. The observations were critically analyzed and evaluated. The hemoglobin values were restored rapidly to a normal range in all cases. The average daily hemoglobin response in the group treated with oral iron alone was 0.205 Gm. The average daily hemoglobin response in the group treated with oral iron and ascorbic acid amounted to 0.347 Gm. The average length of treatment in the first group was twenty-one days, while the same was achieved after seventeen days of therapy in the second group. It is concluded that the oral administration of iron in nutritional anemia of infancy and childhood is equally efficacious as other types of treatment. Apparently ascorbic acid increases the absorption and to some extent may aid the utilization of orally given iron. The subject of nutritional anemiain infancy and childhood is reviewed, with emphasis on the etiology, the pathogenesis, and the mechanisms of iron metabolism involved. In twenty infants and children with severe nutritional anemia, satisfactory therapeutic results were obtained when oral iron was administered. Every other patient in this series received large doses of ascrobic acid additionally which improved the response to iron therapy. The observations were critically analyzed and evaluated. The hemoglobin values were restored rapidly to a normal range in all cases. The average daily hemoglobin response in the group treated with oral iron alone was 0.205 Gm. The average daily hemoglobin response in the group treated with oral iron and ascorbic acid amounted to 0.347 Gm. The average length of treatment in the first group was twenty-one days, while the same was achieved after seventeen days of therapy in the second group. It is concluded that the oral administration of iron in nutritional anemia of infancy and childhood is equally efficacious as other types of treatment. Apparently ascorbic acid increases the absorption and to some extent may aid the utilization of orally given iron.