Twenty‐one patients between the ages of 3 1/2 and 16 years, with geophagia and iron deficiency anaemia were investigated by d‐Xylose absorption, glucose tolerance tests and oral intestinal biopsy, in addition to routine haematological studies. Two subjects had flat glucose tolerance curves and one had abnormal d‐Xylose absorption whereas 13 showed evident but slight histologic changes compatible with malabsorption. Oral iron treatment and a normal diet corrected both the anaemia and the abnormal mucosal histology.