Relation between tea drinking and anemia in infants

Abstract

To evaluate the effect of tea drinking on the occurrence of microcytic anemia in infants, we studied 100 infants who underwent routine blood counts at the age of 6-12 months. An overall high frequency of anemia (Hb < 11 gm/d1-49%), microcytosis (MCV <70 .Mm3-26%) and microcytic anemia (22%) was found in the whole group. The percentage of tea drinking infants with microcytic anemia (34%) was significantly higher than that of the non-tea drinkers. The tea drinkers had significantly lower mean levels of hemoglobin than that of the non-tea drinkers (10.5 ± 1.2 gm/dl vs 11.2 ± 0.8 gm/dl, respectively) and significantly lower mean levels of- mean corpuscular volume than that of the non-tea drinkers (71.5 ± 7.1 p.m3 vs 76.1 ± 4.6 p.m3). There were no significant differences between the two groups in their sex distribution and in the duration of breast feeding. The two groups differed with regard to their ages but there is no statistical effect of these differences on the hematological results.