iron-rich foods which are easy for children to eat?

[imaginaryfriend]

Dd is 6.5 and has had a blood test today confirming she's anaemic.

She's not a big meat eater and broccoli is the only green vegetable she really eats.

Any tips on child-friendly iron-rich foods I could tempt her with?

Oh, the other thing is, do not drink tea with any of these (or at all, for preference, if she does already?) - tea inhibits iron absorption

Re swallowing red meat - that's very common in kids - have your tried slow cooked beef - casseroles etc. If you slow cook stewing steak till it's falling apart tender, it'll go down easier.

Or minced beef is just as good. Or make pate!

Does she like burgers? If you got good steak & minced it to make your own burgers, would she eat those?

You guys are great!

A breakdown of a typical day for her would be:

Breakfast - 2 cups of milk, a boiled egg (but she only currently eats the white so I'll have to encourage her to eat the yolk too), wholemeal toast with butter and honey, some kind of fruit. She usually eats about half of that. At the weekends she likes to have a quorn sausage which she eats all of.

Lunch - at school so I haven't a clue really. She seems to choose the meat options unless there's pizza on offer. They just get water to drink.

Dinner - favourite meal of all time is pasta with baby corn, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms in tomato and basil sauce with lots of grated cheese. She drinks juice with this.
She'll also eat spaghetti bolognaise, lasagne, chicken in any form, curry, noodles.

Before bed she likes to have a cup of milk and she has her chewy vitamin.

I've recently persuaded her to eat some 100% beef burgers from Tescos Finest range. She'll eat about half of one in a wholemeal roll with peppers and cucumber on the side.

She doesn't drink anything with caffeine.

Perhaps step up the spag bols and lasagnes the?

I wish I could think of a way to get her to eat sardines. So far she's always refused fish in any shape or form.

Although she's not the best eater in the world, she's not terrible is she? So why is she anaemic I wonder?

My mum used to mash up sardines with margarine (I think) to make sandwiches - if you did that with wholewheat bread (again) & maybe thin sliced tomatoes on top, would she eat that do you think?

How do you remove iron from Special K with a magnet?

You crush it, add some water, and use a magnetic stirrer. Iron powder accumulates very noticeably on both ends of the stirrer.

I'd like to think she'd eat a sardine sandwich but I somehow doubt it...

It might be worth getting her tested for coeliac disease. My eldest DS was anaemic on and off throughout childhood and it was eventually discovered that he has coeliac disease. If diet is good, there really has to be an underlying cause.

What signs should I look for in celiac disease?

coeliac symptoms

My DD has (undiagnosed) IBS - cutting back on gluten has made a big difference to her.

My DS1 was anaemic and underweight (the doctors always said he was just one of those wiry children . He had few of the other symptoms which can include loose, smelly stools, lethargy, poor appetite, skin rashes.

My DS5 has also just been diagnosed and again presented with few of the classic symptoms, but once on the gluten-free diet, had a massive growth spurt and was noticeably less lethargic.

Diagnosis is by a simple blood test which if positive is followed up with endoscopy.

Almost every week I soak a bag of lentils, then cook boil them with veg stock and a bit of water till soft, add grated veg or some tins of veg, pour in a jar of tomato chutney and a squeeze of bbq sauce and a generic pasta sauce. I use this as a base for pasta, cottage pies, mix with stuff to make lentil patties,on toast etc. Freezes well.

I would seriously cut back on the amount of milk she drinks - if she's eating lots of veggies you don't need to worry about the calcium so much but drinking a lot of milk can prevent absorption of iron by irritating the stomach lining and also cause the excretion of small amounts of blood, increasing anaemia. She really needs to drink fruit juice with meals containing meat.

She does sound like she has a really healthy diet though. Sounds like she might go for very herby bolognaise if you chuck a lot of basil in it. Or put minced beef on pizza.

DS is mad keen on Keema nan (minced beef and spices in a nan bread) for some reason so perhaps try that. Curry is excellent for getting meat into kids because you can add a lot of fruit to a korma for example and that gives vitamin C so the iron is more bioavailable.

One of the problems with vegetable based iron is that it's not readily absorbed especially as it tends to be in fibrous foods which are passed through the body more quickly and with less processing.

Oh and for that reason the iron in bran flakes is not very well absorbed.

I assume you know you can ask to be referred to a dietician to get specific advice on your daughter's condition?

DD doesn't like sardines, but she does like tinned mackerel from M&S so we eat lots of that.