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Abstract In spite of global progressive achievements in medicine development, anemia continues as one of the most prevalent disorders. More than 25% of the world’s population has iron deficiency anemia (IDA). And more than 50% of them are women or children below 7 years of age. In addition; it is estimated that five billion people, or as much as 80% of the world’s population, may be iron-deficient. Dozens of studies suggested that iron deficiency (ID) may have deleterious effects on children’s development and cognitive function, but there is no final evidence till now that iron supplementation may reverse it. Iron deficiency is the most frequent micronutrients deficiency – other most likely are zinc, iodine, and vitamin A - which occur in cases of consuming an energy-dense, but nutrient-poor diet. It also causes an immense disease burden despite global progressive achievements in medicine. ID peaks during early childhood and can’t be picked by routine anemia screening during its early stages because of vague clinical impacts and may pass unnoticed. ID causes vary between physiological and pathological iron losses, decreased intake, or even malabsorption; therefore, body iron stores become depleted. Infants and preschoolers are the age groups most vulnerable to variations in body iron reserves. This is most likely connected to their rapid growth, as they require iron to avoid a decrease in basal ganglia-driven processes, which could harm psychomotor development and interfere with cognition and behavior. Children acquire fundamental capabilities like language, fine motor control, and social skills throughout these formative years. Our aim was to address the effect of liposomal iron supplementation on the development of non-anemic iron deficient (NAID) preschool children and its impact on laboratory and anthropometric outcomes. Our study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of preschool children aged 6-59 months. It was conducted in 10 nurseries in Menoufia Governorate between January 2022 and March 2023. All participants underwent evaluation at baseline by complete blood count, serum ferritin, C-reactive protein, anthropometric measures, and developmental screening using the gold standard tool (Age and Stage III). NAID children were randomly allocated 1:1 into two comparative groups to create the four arms of our trial, which were iron sufficient (group A), NAID (groups B and C), and iron deficiency anemia (group D). In groups C and D, we administered liposomal iron plus dietary recommendations while a placebo plus dietary recommendations were provided to group B. Four months later, re-evaluation was performed using the same baseline parameters. |