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Objective:Allergic disease is multifactorial in origin. Because iron nutrition affects immune responses and maternal pregnancy weight gain impairs fetal iron delivery while increasing fetal demands for growth, the study examined maternal pregnancy weight gain, newborn iron status and an index of atopic disease, infant eosinophilia.Study Design:Within a larger prospective study of healthy newborns at risk for developing iron deficiency anemia, umbilical cord iron indicators were compared to infant eosinophil counts.Result:Infants who developed eosinophilia exhibited higher cord reticulocyte-enriched zinc protoporphyrin/heme ratio, P<0.05 and fewer cord ferritin values in the highest (best) quartile, P<0.05. If cord ferritin was in the upper three quartiles, the negative predictive value for infant eosinophilia was 90%. High maternal pregnancy weight gain predicted infant eosinophil counts, P<0.04, and contributed to cord ferritin predicting eosinophilia, P<0.003.Conclusion:Poor fetal iron status may be an additional risk factor for infant eosinophilia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:Maternal iron needs increase sixfold during pregnancy, but obesity interferes with iron absorption. We hypothesized that maternal obesity impairs fetal iron status.Study Design:Three hundred and sixteen newborns with risk factors for infantile iron deficiency anemia (IDA) were studied to examine obesity during pregnancy and neonatal iron status. Erythrocyte iron was assessed by cord blood hemoglobin (Hb), zinc protoporphyrin/heme (ZnPP/H) and reticulocyte-ZnPP/H, and storage iron by serum ferritin.Result:Women with body mass index (BMI) ⩾30 kg m−2, as compared with non-obese women, delivered larger offspring with higher reticulocyte-ZnPP/H and lower serum ferritin concentrations (P<0.05 for both). With increasing BMI, the estimated body iron was relatively lower (mg kg−1) and the ratio of total Hb-bound iron (mg) per total body iron (mg) increased. Maternal diabetes compromised infant iron status, but multivariate analysis demonstrated that obesity was an independent predictor.Conclusion:Obesity during pregnancy and excessive weight gain are independent risk factors for iron deficiency in the newborn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]