title: Correlation between maternal and childhood VitB12, folic acid and ferritin levels.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the correlation between serum folic acid, vitamin B12 and ferritin of mother and child and to study various neonatal risk factors as a cause of anemia in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred eighty children two months to two years of age admitted in the department of Pediatric Medicine of The Children's Hospital and The Institute of Child Health Lahore from January 2013 to January 2015 with common medical conditions having anemia were included. Complete blood count (CBC), serum ferritin level, folic acid and Vitamin (Vit) B12 level were sent of children and their mothers. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 180 children with anemia, 66.7% were males. Mean age of children was 7.3months. Fifty-five percent children were malnourished according to z scoring. The mean Hemoglobin (Hb) of children was 8 g/dl. Only 4% children had low ferritin level while 60% had low folic acid and 45% had decreased VitB12. There was significant correlation between Hb of mother and child (p =0.02), Vit B12 deficiency (p=0.008) and iron deficiency (p<0.001). Premature children had lower folic acid levels (p =0.02), while prematurity, IUGR, previous admission and history of sepsis showed no association with anemia in our study. Both breast-feeding and top feeding showed significant association with anemia with p-value of 0.042 and 0.003 respectively while dilution showed no impact on anemia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Maternal anemia has a significant impact on child's hemoglobin. As compared to previous concept of increased iron deficiency in children we found increased occurrence of folic acid and VitB12 deficiency in children and their mothers.
authors.affiliation: Fatima Zeeshan, MRCPCH, FCPS. Department of Paediatric Medicine, The Children's Hospital and The Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Fatima
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zeeshan
authors.affiliation: Attia Bari, DCH, MCPS, FCPS. Department of Paediatric Medicine, The Children's Hospital and The Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Attia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bari
authors.affiliation: Saima Farhan, FCPS. Department of Microbiology, The Children's Hospital and The Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Saima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Farhan
authors.affiliation: Uzma Jabeen, FCPS. Department of Paediatric Medicine, The Children's Hospital and The Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Uzma
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Jabeen
authors.affiliation: Ahsan Waheed Rathore, MRCP, MRCPCH, FRCP. Department of Paediatric Medicine, The Children's Hospital and The Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Ahsan Waheed
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Rathore
keywords: Anemia; Folic acid deficiency; Vit B12 deficiency anemia