Why is iron important during lactation

Vitamin B12 is found in animal products like meat, fish, milk, and eggs, and fortified products, like cereal and non-dairy milk alternatives.

If you're vegetarian or vegan, talk to your doctor to find out if you need to take B12 supplements during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium for healthy bones and teeth. Vitamin D is made when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Good food sources of vitamin D include fortified low-fat or fat-free milk, fortified orange juice, egg yolks, and salmon.

Experts recommend that pregnant and breastfeeding women get international units of vitamin D daily. Nutrients You Need. Pregnant or Breastfeeding? Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. Los nutrientes que necesita. Calcium Calcium helps build strong bones and teeth, and plays an important role in helping the circulatory, muscular, and nervous systems work properly.

Carbohydrates Eating carbohydrates helps provide energy to support the growth and development of a baby and, after delivery, breastfeeding. Folic acid Folic acid helps with the development of a baby's brain and spinal cord. Healthy Fats Fat is an important part of any healthy diet. Iodine Iodine helps the body's thyroid gland make hormones that help with growth and brain development.

Iron Eating a diet rich in iron and taking a daily iron supplement while pregnant or breastfeeding helps prevent iron-deficiency anemia. Protein Protein helps build a baby's muscles, bones, and other tissues, and supports growth, especially in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Vitamin A Vitamin A helps develop a baby's heart, eyes, and immune system.

The iron requirements of small-for-gestational-age, term infants are unknown. Their iron requirements are likely to be higher than those of average term infants, but whether iron supplements are required is unclear. The optimum amount of dietary iron in the weaning diet needs to be further defined.

Similarly, the optimal source and amount of iron in infant formulas given to infants who receive a mixture of human milk and formula is unclear. Abstract Given the importance of iron nutrition during the first year of life, there are surprisingly few true, randomized, controlled studies addressing this issue; however, it seems that iron deficiency is unlikely in full-term, breastfed infants during the first 6 months of life because these infants' body iron stores are sufficient to meet requirements.

The women were instructed to collect small samples of milk, from both breasts, before, during and after feedings. On the morning of the day of breast milk collection, blood samples were withdrawn for biochemical and haematological analyses.

The minerals were determined in breast milk by spectrometry [ 13 ]. Transferrin and ceruloplasmin were analysed by nephelometry, reference values 2. All participants gave written informed consent. The final sample consisted of women: 2 were lost to follow-up, and 14 had incomplete data. The characteristics of the women are shown in Table 1. Mean levels of Hb were significantly different among the groups.

Comparison of haematological and biochemical variables in three groups of lactating women, according to iron supplementation in pregnancy. Comparison of haematological and biochemical variables in two groups of lactating women, according to iron supplementation during breastfeeding. FeBF, iron supplementation during breastfeeding; noFeBF, no iron supplementation during breastfeeding.

Anaemia was observed in These data are worrisome because those women, milk bank donors, presented a nutritional risk similar to malnourished lactating women from rural Africa [ 15 ]. Iron supplementation apparently was not effective in treating anaemia in pregnant women, although effective in preventing it. Iron supplements are given free of charge to Brazilian pregnant women, but we do not know about compliance to the treatment.

There were no differences in the concentrations of iron in breast milk among the women supplemented and not supplemented with iron in pregnancy and breastfeeding, and no associations between those concentrations and any of the iron, copper and zinc parameters in blood data not shown.

Nakamori et al. Iron metabolism interacts with the metabolism of zinc and copper, mainly through the divalent metal transporter 1 DMT1 [ 22—25 ] and human copper transporter hCTR1 [ 26 ]. In humans, iron—folate supplements decreased serum copper concentrations [ 27 ].

However, in an earlier study from Nigeria [ 28 ], iron supplementation in pregnancy was not associated with copper and zinc status. There was no difference in zinc status, assessed by serum zinc and alkaline phosphatase concentrations in women supplemented and not supplemented with iron in pregnancy. Our data are similar to the study of Sheldon et al.

Iron supplementation did not seem to influence the levels of copper and zinc in breast milk. However, it is important to emphasize that a high percentage of them had anaemia and low concentrations of iron in breast milk. In pregnancy, iron supplementation was apparently beneficial to prevent anaemia, and in lactation, supplementation had a negative effect on maternal copper status, confirming an interaction between those micronutrients.

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