OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a multi-mixture intake on the iron status of pre-school children from the municipal school network of Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil. METHODS: Thirty-six children from three day nurseries of the city participated in the study. Day nursery A received bakery products not supplemented with iron. Day nursery B received bakery products supplemented with iron sulfate in the same amount as that present in multi-mixtures distributed in the third day nursery. The products were distributed in the morning during 70 days. Anthropometric, dietary and biochemical assessments were done at the beginning and at the end of the study using the paired t-test at significance level of 0.05, except for hematocrit. In this case, the initial values were compared with the final values using the Wilcoxon test at significance level of 0.05. The software Statistical Analyses and Genetics System, version 5.0, from the Federal University of Viçosa was used for the analyses. RESULTS: The different sources of iron had no effect since the supplemented groups showed a reduction in the assessed blood levels and this was not observed in the placebo group. CONCLUSION: The iron given as a supplement did not alter the iron intake by the children and did not improve the assessed blood indexes either, limiting the conclusions of using the multi-mixture studied in this work.
biological availability; nutritional status; iron; nutritional suplement; child; preschool
