Fe de¿ciency is still common in infancy, even in af¿uent societies, and has prompted Fe forti¿cation of food products and use of Fe supplements in many populations. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that Fe status among 9-month-old infants following the Danish Fe supplementation recommendation (.400 ml Fe-forti¿ed formula or 8 mg Fe/d) is associated with more favourable levels of Fe status indicators compared to those not following the recommendation. A random sample of 9-month-old infants living in Copenhagen
was established and 312 healthy term infants were examined at 9·1 (SD 0·3) months of age. Blood samples were available from 278 infants. Overall, twenty infants (7·8 %) had Fe de¿ciency (serum ferritin , 12mg/l) and ,1 % had Fe de¿ciency anaemia (serum ferritin , 12mg/l and Hb , 100 g/l). Serum ferritin was positively associated with birth weight (P,0·001), intake of forti¿ed formula and follow-on formula (P¼0·001), and female sex (P,0·001). Cow’s milk intake and length of exclusive breast-feeding were negatively associated with Hb levels (P¼0·013 and P,0·001). Serum ferritin levels were signi¿cantly higher (P,0·0001) and transferrin receptor (TfR) was signi¿cantly lower (P¼0·003) among infants (n 188) meeting the Fe supplementation recommendation compared to those (n 67) not meeting the recommendation. No signi¿cant difference between these two groups was found for Hb. In conclusion, this study con¿rmed that Fe status of infants following the Danish Fe supplementation recommendation was signi¿cantly associated with increased serum ferritin
and decreased levels of TfR indicating more favourable Fe status, compared to infants not following the recommendation.