Introduction: It is a fact that iron deficiency anemia in infants leads to unpleasant effects on Growth , Cognition and Psyche for life . During the late seventies,relation of iron deficiency anaemia(I.D.A) and permanent complications was suggested , and later on, several studies proved that handicaps occur when iron deficiency (I.D) is severe enough to develope I.D.A Method & Materials : In our study, we evaluated the prevalence of I.D.A and I.D in children aged between 6&60 months in Yazd . In this cross - sectional study, 449 cases were selected by clustering 239 boys and 210 girls. Hemoglobin( Hb) and ferritin was measured .5 cases were omitted from the study. Data was analyzed using SPSS computer software program. Results : In our study, prevalence of Iron deficiency anemia was 3.8% and that of Iron deficiency was 8.6%. Prevalence of other anemias in the population under study was 8.4% . 79.2% of children in this group were not anemic and considered as normal . Iron deficiency was twice that of Iron deficiency anemia. (p value< 0.05 ). Conclusion : The total prevalance of anemia in this study was 20.8% with Iron deficency anemia 3-4% and Iron deficiency 8.6% . The prevalence of iron deficiency and other forms of anemia in this study was less than many other parts of the world, except USA . Anemia in children aged 6-17 months was more than other age groups. Also, anemia in girls was more prevalent than boys .

Keywords: Anemia, Iron Deficiency, Children

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