ABSTRACT
A total sample of 117 [63 males and 54 females] full-term, clinically healthy, 3-month- old infants were recruited to participate in a 9- month longitudinal study. Infants were subjected to absolute exclusive breastfeeding for 4 to 6 months postpartum. Having their enrollment completed in October 1994, infants were randomly divided into three groups, each comprising 39 infants: 21 males and 18 females. However, 41.9% of infants [49 infants] dropped out for various reasons in addition to 15 more infants who developed anemia, leaving behind 51 infants at six months of age when intervention strategies were applied on only 19 infants in the dietary counseling [DC] group, 17 infants in the iron- supplemented [IS] group, and 15 infants in the control group [CL] which was not subjected to any intervention supplements. Medicinal ferrous sulfate drops were given daily at 1 mg/kg body weight for the IS group. The prevalence of nutritional anemia [NA] at 9 and 12 months combind was 26.3, 5.9, and 33.3% for the DC, the IS, and the CL groups, respectively. The respective values for iron deficiency anemia [IDA] were 15.8, 0.0, and 26.7%. Significant differences were only observed between the IS group and either the DC or the CL group. Medicinal iron supplementation was concluded to be the effective strategy to protect against IDA development during the second half year of infant's age in comparison with the strategy of dietary counseling among families of low to medium socioeconomic status. The data also suggest that exclusive breasfeeding for 4 to 6 months of infants age does not protect him from developing nutritional anemia or iron deficiency anemia during the first 12 months of life. In addition, nutritional anemia was mainly due to a deficiency of iron