Toddler anaemia, iron in milk...

[Tangle]

Now, the scenario I seem to read a lot is that it's important to make sure you're baby has plenty of iron past 6 months as breast milk is low in iron and the UK has a VERY high incidence of toddler anaemia. There doesn't seem to be so much concern if you FF as there is iron added to formula.

Which to me makes no sense whatsoever.

In the UK we seem to have such a low percentage of toddlers that are BF at all, how can the low iron in BM be responsible for the majority of 2 year olds being anaemic? Surely it's more concerning that we have a lot of anaemic toddlers even though most of them will be drinking formula that's iron enriched - where does the iron go and why aren't they absorbing it?

I'm just being totally stupid about something here, because I just can't see the logic! Anyone enlighten me?

Interesting...I expect it is because the toddlers are not having enough natural iron in their food or having enough fruit to absorb the iron. I don't think the breast or formula milk has anything to do with it I think it is down to the food they eat. Most children in the UK are not given the correct food is my view.

Formula milk is high in iron compared to breastmilk, but most of it is wasted. Breastmilk contains other 'ingredients' which bind to the iron and make it more easily absorbed by the gut. The excess iron in formula, however, has been associated with the growth of unhelpful gut flora, causing stomach upsets.

None of which would be relevant to the average two year old, as you say, who is probably drinking cow's milk, if anything. Maybe it just has more to do with the average toddler excising all healthy options from their diet at this time in order to focus their eating energies on pasta, pasta and more pasta... (speaking from my own experience of a child who used to eat a huge variety of fruit and veg...)

The problem is is that if you breastfeed your child and if there is problem with your child, the fact that you are still breastfeeding will get the blame, out of people's sheer ignorance.

how would you know if your toddler was aneamic?

lulumama - my dd2 was very ill this time last year in hospital. A routine blood test showed aneamia. The doctors themselves were great and encouraged me to breastfeed as much as possible to help dd2 get over her illness.

Breastmilk was about the only good thing about her diet at the time, as she had had a succession of nasty illnesses and just hadn't recovered properly from any of them.

My sil did take the opportunately however to blame my dd2's aneamia on the fact that I was still breatsfeeding her. And of course she said this in front of my mother in law, and that still makes me feel angry. It's hard enough seeing your child sick in hospital without having close family members practically blaming you for it.

am sorry your DD was poorly and you were given a hard time. shows ignorance in your family, really, doesn;t it? pooor you

yes, but sil is a dentist so people tend to listen to her. I didn't have the facts myself at the time to argue with her.

i would not ask my dentist for infant feeding advice

well no, but sil feels free to give it! She also blamed my dd1's bad teeth on the fact I breast fed her. Sil conveniently ignored the fact that everyone in that family has bad teeth. (she said this three years after I'd stopped bfing dd1 btw).

Sil believes in bfing. Absolutely. But only as long as you stop before your child is six months old

Tangle, the UK does not have a high incidence of toddler anaemia.

It does exist, of course, but not generally. Most incidence is in 'clusters', often in ethnic minority groups, where traditionally, children may have lots of cows milk to drink and milk-based solids, and if other foods are part of the diet, they are low in iron. Where there is anaemia, toddlers are likely to have many bottles of milk a day, and hardly any other foods.

Even toddlers who are breastfed many times a day risk anaemia if they have no/little solid food. It is not the breastfeeding/breastmilk/bottles of milk that are to 'blame' but the low iron content of the rest of the diet.

Formula with a high iron content may address this, but it will only tackle (if at all) the iron; the rest of the diet will be poor, if the toddler does not increase his repertoire of foods to include other foodstuffs. Of course milk (breastmilk included) can continue, but he will need other stuff as well to grow and thrive.

You put it so well tiktok. My dd2 had aneamia not because she was bf but because she wasn't eating solid food due to a succession of illnesses.

She is 100% fine now, a year later her diet is great and she is thriving.