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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the need for separate Hb screening criteria according to race by evaluating the Hb response to a therapeutic trial of iron in 1-yr-old infants. Among the 1128 infants who were screened, a significantly larger percentage of blacks (37%) than Caucasians (22%) had a Hb less than 11.5 g/dl. However, when these screen-positive infants were treated with oral iron for 3 months, the percentage who had a greater than or equal to g/dl response was similar in blacks (38%) and Caucasians (35%). Our results indicated that a slight but significant inherent tendency to lower Hb values among the black infants was counter-balanced by a substantially higher prevalence of iron deficiency anemia. These findings are in favor of using uniform Hb screening criteria in similar populations.

Iron supplements are commonly administered to infants in order to prevent iron deficiency. We wished to determine whether iron administration could compromise zinc nutrition as might be suspected from previous studies. Measures of iron nutrition, serum zinc, and serum copper were measured before and after randomization of 291 healthy 1-yr-old infants to a 3 mo course of placebo or iron treatment (30 mg iron as ferrous sulfate given before a meal). There was no significant difference in serum zinc or copper in the two groups before or after treatment; thus iron administration did not result in any evidence of zinc deficiency in a healthy, well-nourished group of T-yr-old infants.