In addition, infants who are given cows milk too early can develop anemia due to gastrointestinal blood loss.Children who are at risk for iron-deficiency anemia include:
Preterm infants
Low birth weight infants
Infants fed with cows milk under 12 months of age
Breastfed infants who have not received iron supplementation after age 6 months, or those receiving non-iron-fortified formulas
Children between the ages of 1 to 5 years old who receive more than 24 ounces (700 mL) of cow milk per day
Children with low socioeconomic status
Children with special health care needs
Children of Hispanic ethnicity
Children who are overweight

Blood donation
Frequent blood donors are also at risk for developing iron deficiency anemia. When whole blood is donated, approximately 200 mg of iron is also lost from the body. The blood bank screens people for anemia before drawing blood for donation. If the patient has anemia, blood is not drawn. Less iron is lost if the person is donating platelets or white blood cells. Hepcidin
Decreased levels of serum and urine hepcidin are early indicators of iron deficiency. Hepcidin concentrations are also connected to the complex relationship between malaria and iron deficiency. Mechanism
Anemia can result from significant iron deficiency. When the body has sufficient iron to meet its needs (functional iron), the remainder is stored for later use in cells, mostly in the bone marrow and liver. These stores are called ferritin complexes and are part of the human (and other animals) iron metabolism systems.
Oral iron replacement may not be effective in cases of iron deficiency due to malabsorption, such as celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, or H. pylori infection; these cases would require treatment of the underlying disease to increase oral absorption or intravenous iron replacement.As iron-deficiency anemia becomes more severe, if the anemia does not respond to oral treatments, or if the treated person does not tolerate oral iron supplementation, then other measures may become necessary. Two options are intravenous iron injections and blood transfusion. Intravenous can be for people who do not tolerate oral iron, who are unlikely to respond to oral iron, or who require iron on a long-term basis. For example, people receiving dialysis treatment who are also getting erythropoietin or another erythropoiesis-stimulating agent are given parenteral iron, which helps the body respond to the erythropoietin agents to produce red blood cells.Intravenous iron can induce an allergic response that can be as serious as anaphylaxis, although different formulations have decreased the likelihood of this adverse effect. In certain cases intravenous iron is both safer and more effective than the oral route. For patients with severe anemia such as from blood loss, or who have severe symptoms such as cardiovascular instability, a blood transfusion may be considered.Ferric derisomaltose (Monoferric) was approved in the United States in January 2020, for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia. Epidemiology
A moderate degree of iron-deficiency anemia affects approximately 610 million people worldwide or 8.8% of the population. It is slightly more common in females (9.9%) than males (7.8%).