Around 75% of infants aged six to 12 months and 25% of toddlers aged one to two years in Australia don’t get the recommended dietary intake of iron.
Despite their small size, weaning infants and children require similar amounts of iron to adults. The iron is crucial for supporting their rapid growth in blood and muscles, immunity, brain development and learning.
Untreated iron deficiency can progress to anaemia – severe iron deficiency where there are insufficient healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen around the body. Alarmingly, anaemia affects around 8% of Australian children under five, and if untreated, can be associated with developmental setbacks and later cognitive deficits.
