Occasional nettle tea for 6 m.o. baby?

[AngelDog]

Sorry, not technically a bf question but I thought you would be the best people to ask.

Is it okay to give my 6.5 m.o. a few sips of nettle tea a day?

He hasn't started solids yet, as I'm waiting for him to sit independently so we can do BLW.

I have a number of nutritional deficiencies, mainly from a lack of vitamin B12 so my iron levels are probably low (low B12 can cause pernicious anaemia). I also have an incredible number of food intolerances, which DS2 shares - they include dairy and all leafy green veg apart from lettuce and nettles.

Nettles are good for iron, B vitamins, vitamin K and calcium in. I'm fairly confident we are lacking in all of those as our diet is so restricted.

We are working on addressing the nutritional deficiencies but it is going to be very, very slow for various reasons.

He's 6.5mo already?! Where has the time gone?

I've never heard any warnings against nettle tea for a baby but then I've never heard recommendations either. How high is the iron content? If you do decide to give it then I'd probably make it a lot weaker than you would for an adult.

Hope you get your iron and B12 levels sorted.

The recommendation is that all children over 6 months old are given a vitamin supplement. Would this be better than nettle tea as you will know how much he is getting?

What noblegiraffe said. Advice is to give vitamins from 6 months unless they're drinking 500ml of formula per day.

Also, off topic a bit, but you say you're waiting till he can sit independently before starting blw. One of the signs of readiness to wean is being able to sit upright with support if necessary, rather than completely unsupported. NHS weaning advice states this as well as the blw book.

What CornishYarg said.

I give wellkid liquid vits.

I agree with the others about giving vitamins, although this generally won't help with iron intake (other than that they contain vitamin C which can help iron absorption). Have you read the Kellymom information on iron supplementation etc. ? The section "Why not use iron supplements as a protective measure for every baby?" also raises some issues about giving iron rich foods, so might give you some things to think about. There are also a lot of references which might give more information.

Thanks everyone - and sorry to be so slow coming back to this (I did read the replies but didn't have time to answer myself).

We are doing some vitamins for him and trying to get others, although it's proving tricky finding ones which don't have ingredients he's intolerant to.