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High Lead and Low Iron
What You Need to Know to Keep Your Baby Safe
By Kelly Burgess
Probably every person in America has some measurable level of lead. The only way to determine if your child's is high enough to cause problems is to have the child tested. Dr. Canfield says if it was his kid, he'd ask for lead blood level tests at 6, 12 and 18 months of age. From there, any measurement above about 2 µg/dl should be cause for a close look at the child's environment to reduce exposure even further.
Also, have the child's iron levels tested, says Dr. Alvin Eden, chairman/director of the Department of Pediatrics at Wycoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and author of Positive Parenting (Bobbs-Merrill, 1980). Dr. Eden is working with the makers of MyKidzIron to get the word out about the prevalence of iron deficiency in toddlers and the link between iron deficiency and its possible role in lead absorption.
"If a child is iron deficient he'll absorb more lead compared to a child who is not iron deficient," Dr. Eden says. "This is especially important at about ages 1 to 3 when they put everything in their mouths."
Dr. Eden says that parents need to discuss this issue with their doctor as current recommendations call only for testing for anemia, not iron deficiency, so it's easy for a toddler to have a hidden iron deficiency.
"I've been working on the issue of iron deficiency for years, Dr. Eden says. "When the child goes on milk they should be put on a multivitamin with iron. Once a child switches to milk their appetite decreases and they tend to drink a lot of milk and apple juice and all the iron they got from their fortified cereals and their formula or breast milk no longer is there."
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