diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index dd96cd2b10ae4..9ce9b303648f8 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -637,7 +637,7 @@ def keys(self):
     def iteritems(self):
         """Iterator over (column, series) pairs"""
         for i, k in enumerate(self.columns):
-            yield (k,self.take([i],axis=1)[k])
+            yield (k,self.icol(i))
 
     def iterrows(self):
         """