Iron deficiency in the premature infant. Significance, and prevention by the intramuscular administration of iron-dextran.

I NFANTS born prematurely experience a greater than usual number of serious illnesses throughout the first 2 years of life.1-4 We have previously reported5 that 1 out of every 4 premature infants discharged from our nursery required re-admission to the hospital before the second birthday, usually for treatment of pneumonia or diar rheal disease. The great majority of these babies were also found to have iron defi ciency anemia. In view of the widely-held clinical belief that iron deficiency anemia is associated with an increased incidence of infections,@7 it seemed desirable to study the health record of a group of premature infants maintained in a state of abundant iron nutrition; evidence that the number of infections in such a group was reduced would be of considerable theoretic and clin ical interest. Another object of this study was to determine whether the “¿ prophylac tic―use of intramuscular injections of iron dextran during the nursery stay was a method of preventing iron deficiency ane mia suitable for use in clinical practice.