Iron overdose is more a teenage problem than a toddler one
Of 1,839 single-substance iron overdoses referred to the UK poisons service, 28% were children under six and 37% were aged 13 to 20, 91% of them girls.
What the study found
In UK iron overdoses, teenagers outnumbered toddlers
Of 1,839 single-substance iron overdoses referred to the UK poisons service, 28% were children under six and 37% were aged 13 to 20, of whom 91% were girls. Teenagers were about 17% of all referrals to that service, so the excess is specific to iron.
The caveat · Intent was inferred, not recorded
The authors read the older peak as intentional rather than accidental, which is an interpretation of the age and sex pattern rather than something the referrals recorded. These are hospital referrals to a poisons service, not all iron overdoses. And how much iron someone said they had taken predicted neither their measured blood level nor their symptoms, so the exposure data here are unreliable.