Iron deficiency: causes, effects, and treatment approaches

Iron Deficiency

In our high technological and global economy, we Americans think of malnutrition as a thing of the past. It is almost unheard of for our children to go hungry with a McDonald's on every corner. But that is only in our world. This report is a review of the 2003 report written by Karen Olness in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics called "Effects On Brain Development Leading To Cognitive Impairment: A Worldwide Epidemic." In keeping with the theme of nutrition and iron deficiency, this story points out that the world food shortages and other epidemic situations in developing nations has a direct bearing on the brains of children. For the poor nations of the world things like malnutrition, genetic disease, infectious diseases like meningitis, parasites, and cerebral malaria, in utero drug and alcohol exposure, newborn asphyxia, low birth weight, head injuries, and endocrine disorders to name a few are just a normal day in the life of Plot

The article "Effects On Brain Development Leading To Cognitive Impairment: A Worldwide Epidemic" is both a technical overview of some possible causes of mental and other cognitive impairments in children in developing countries and a cry for help. "The numbers of those already impaired and being impaired each day are large and have frightening educational, economic, and political implications for the world. Those of us who are specialists in child behavior and development and who are fortunate to live in the Western world are the most logical group to take this message to decision makers, child-advocacy groups, educators, and families both domestically and in developing areas of the world." (Olness, 2003)

In a very straight forward approach, Karen Olness is asking the United Nations to take this problem serious and to form a world wide watch program to help get accurate estimates of the extent of this problem. This is a problem that in the long-term will affect us all. "The impact of hundreds of millions of world citizens with cognitive impairment will affect all countries during this century." (Olness, 2003)

Unfortunately, according to the author, cognitive limitations in children appear to be on the rise. Because the majority of these cases are in underdeveloped poor nations, medical help or professional expertise is limited or totally nonexistent. The fact that many of the associated causes of these cognitive concerns stem from malnutrition makes this even a bigger concern as famine continues to spread as the rich get richer and the poor die.

As pointed out in the article, iron deficiency is a problem that newborns suffer for the entire first year of life in poor and third world countries. The author points out that the United States, in the early 1960's and 70's, solved their iron deficiency problems by mandating iron fortified formulas. This treatment would work all over the world if only the babies were actually getting formula.

Another concern is that symptoms of iron deficiency usually do not make themselves apparent until the middle school years. Thus, the hidden problems go untreated for up to ten years and by that time symptoms such as anemia have slowed the maturation process of the auditory brainstem. "In a follow-up study, she and her colleagues found that children had behavior and developmental problems more than 10 years after being treated for iron deficiency as infants. (13) Many of the formerly iron-deficient children had repeated a grade and/or been referred for special services or tutoring." (Olness, 2003)

The author points out that iron deficiency has been attributed to behavior problems in children who suffered in infancy. These children are seen as problematic. They also have very high counts of anxiety or depression, social problems, and other attention issues. With these statistics, the author seems to be pointing out how crucial it is to help feed the mothers and children in third world nations. "More than 30% of pregnant women in developing countries have iron-deficiency anemia, and iron deficiency without anemia is even more widespread. If the central nervous system effects of iron deficiency in the developing infant lay the ground for later learning problems, there is a large population of children at risk." (Olness, 2003)