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Article History

Received: 14 June 2018

Accepted: 17 September 2018

First Online: 24 September 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Research ethics approval was granted by Queen’s University Health Sciences Research Ethics Board (CHC cohort), Hospital for Sick Children and St. Michael’s Hospital (non-CHC, TARGet Kids!). We enrolled healthy children ages 12 to 36 months, with their guardian’s written consent.

: Not applicable.

: IB reports receiving a grant from the College of Family Physicians of Canada for the conduct of this study. Funding to support TARGet Kids! was provided by multiple sources, including the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), namely the Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (No. MOP 114945 to JLM, No. MOP 115059 to PCP, No. MOP 106532 to JLM), and the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism, and Diabetes (No. MOP 119375 to CSB), as well as the St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation. The Paediatric Outcomes Research Team is supported by a grant from The Hospital for Sick Children Foundation. PCP reports receiving a grant from Hospital for Sick Children Foundation and a grant from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FRN # 115059) for an ongoing investigator-initiated trial of iron deficiency in young children, for which Mead Johnson Nutrition provides non-financial support (Fer-In-Sol® liquid iron supplement) (2011–2017); and grants unrelated to this study for completed investigator-initiated studies from Danone Institute of Canada (2002–2004 and 2006–2009), Dairy Farmers of Ontario (2008–2010). JLM received an unrestricted research grant for a completed investigator-initiated study from the Dairy Farmers of Canada (2011–2012) and D-drops provided non-financial sup-port (vitamin D supplements) for an investigator initiated study on vitamin D and respiratory tract infections (2011–2015). CSB received a research grant from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation (CAMH 2017–2020) and grants from Canadian Institutes of Health Research. CB reports previously receiving a grant for a completed investigator-initiated study from the SickKids Centre for Health Active Kids (CHAK) (2015–2016) involving the development and validation of a risk stratification tool to identify young asymptomatic children at risk for iron deficiency. These agencies had no role in the design, collection, analyses or interpretation of the results of this study or in the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

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