SynthesisFrontiers in pediatrics2025
Effect of iron supplementation in healthy exclusively breastfed infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in pediatrics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effect of iron supplements on cognitive development in children: an umbrella review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Iron Supplementation at 1 mg/kg/Day for Exclusively Breastfed Full-Term Infants: A Meta-Analysis.International journal of pediatrics · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background and objectives: Exclusively breastfed infants are at risk of iron deficiency due to the low iron content in breast milk. This study aims to evaluate the benefits and risks of daily oral iron supplementation on growth, cognitive outcomes, and hematologic parameters in these infants. Methods: Data sources include Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed, and Embase from inception to December, 2024. Randomized controlled trials were included. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess the methodological quality of included trials. The continuous outcomes were analyzed by calculating the mean difference (MD) and the binary categorical variables were analyzed using relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: This study included 8 trials (685 participants) comparing iron supplementation to no iron. At 6 months of age, compared to infants who were exclusively breastfed without iron supplementation, those who received oral iron supplementation showed an increase in hemoglobin (Hb) levels (MD 0.42, 95% CI 0.19-0.66, Conclusions: Limited available evidence suggests that iron supplementation is beneficial for hematologic parameters and the incidence of IDA in healthy exclusively breastfed infants. However, it may delay weight gain and head circumference growth. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, PROSPERO [CRD42024610082].
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.