Hi, this is Tom, and in this episode I'm going to be going through infant anemia,

and you can find notes at 0.0.0.5.com and in the 0.2 finals pediatrics book,

and you can find flashcards and questions at members.0.0.0.com. So let's jump straight in.

Anemia is defined as a low concentration of hemoglobin in the blood.

Let's go through the causes. The key causes of anemia in infancy are physiological

anemia of infancy, anemia of prematurity, iron deficiency,

blood loss and hemolysis.

Hemalysis in an infant may be caused by hemalytic disease of the newborn due to ABBO or recess incompatibility, and we're going to

talk in more detail about this shortly, hereditary spherocytosis, and G6PD deficiency.

Let's go through physiological anemia of infancy. There is a normal dip in hemoglobin at around 6 to 8 weeks of age

in healthy term babies. Increased oxygenation at birth provides negative feedback which suppresses

the production of erythropoiting in the kidneys. Reduced erythropoiting leads to reduced red blood

cell and hemoglobin production, which is called erythropoysis in the bone marrow. This is what causes

physiological anemia of infancy and the low hemoglobin at around six to eight weeks of age. Next let's talk about anemia of infancy and the low hemoglobin at around six to eight weeks of age.

Next let's talk about anemia of prematurity. Premature neonates commonly become anemic

during the first few weeks of life. The more premature and unwell the infant, the more likely

they are to require blood transfusions for anemia.

Premature neonates become anemic due to reduced iron stores,

they've had less time in the uterus receiving iron from the mother,

insufficient red blood cell creation relative to rapid growth,

shortened red blood cell lifespan, reduced erythropoiting production,

and frequent blood tests, which involve removing a significant portion of their circulating volume.

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