Tardyferon therapy in hyposiderosis of infancy and childhood.

In the majority of cases iron deficiency of infancy and early childhood is caused by nutritional factors. Among diseases, absorption disorders are the most frequent causes of iron deficiency. Tardyferon has been used for controlling iron deficiency in 21 children younger than two years of age not suffering from malabsorption and in 38 children suffering from coeliac disease. At the onset of the disease 71% of coeliac disease patients suffered from iron deficiency. The normalization of iron metabolism of these patients could be achieved with oral treatment of 5-6 mg Fe++/kg/day of 3-6 months. Iron deficiency of patients with initially normal ferritin level developed as a result of the intensive weight gain occurring in response to the gliadin-free diet. After the patients had been put on a gliadin containing diet again, hyposiderosis also occurred more frequently. Tardyferon therapy was well tolerated by the patients, in the infants taking bébé-Tardyferon difficulties of dosage or notable side-effects were not observed.