encouraging iron-rich food

[nearlythree]

DD2 is anaemic. We eat a mainly veggie diet, which is fine as none of the rest of us are, but dd2 is a picky eater. I want to encourage her to eat more iron but she just refuses most things, except broccoli! Does anyone have any ideas for toddler-friendly food containing iron?

remember that vitamin C helps the absorption of iron so might be an idea to give some orange juice with meals.

dd1 takes a floradix liquid iron supplement w/her diluted apple juice.

she will eat mince in spag bol, but that's about it.

It's not that well known that lamb's iron content is more easily digested by children than beef. Lamb has a sweetish taste that children seem to like and stewed it is not too tough and fibrous. Provided you are OK with prepping and cooking it if you are mainly veggie.
Get her to drink orange juice with whatever iron-rich food she is eating, apparently it really does help with uptake.

dried apricots? would agree with the Floradix or there is one (made by the same people) called Kindervital or something like that which has all sorts of other important minerals/vitamins in aswell.

holland and barrett sell floradix .

lamb i cannot eat. we eat little meat as it is, but no, i couldn't give lamb to my kids.

also beans and lentils, fortified cereals, dried fruit and bread (according to my Healthy Food for Happy Kids book).

Is that because you are living in Scotland expat? My parents would never eat lamb when living in the Lake District either. My father claimed it was Chernobyl fall-out concerns but eventually he cracked and admitted he just found Herdwicks too cute...

Thanks, everyone. The hv is against iron supplements unless prescribed by a doctor. Marina, I'd be able to give dd2 meat if I didn't have to do anything with it (infact have tried ham which ha sbeen totally ignored), but dd1 announces 'ham/sausages/whatever comes from ammamals, we don't eat ammamals, do we mummy?' whenever anything vaguely meaty appears, so think she may have issues with little fluffy sheep in her sister's dinner!!!!

Thanks again for the extra replies.

I think lambs are so obviously babies, aren't they?

just checked and the Kindervital doesn't have iron so if you do go for Floradix you either need the Floradix Liquid Iron or the Floradix Floravital.

Apart from Floradix there's also Spatone. Both are good. Spatone you can add to orange juice. Don't overdose on iron supplements though.

floradix stuff is all natural (from herbs and plants and stuff) and you can get it in health stores or independent chemists

if you have a picky vegetarian eater, then you probably will need some sort of iron supplement? how else does your HV think she will get enough from her food?

I will ask teh hv today about giving an iron supplement, but if not will try the Kindervital one anyway as dd2 has been so ill lately she needs a boost, and Haliborange goes straight through her. Thanks, foxinsocks.

I think we are supposed to just keep going until dd2 decides she likes lentils!

oh I see!

Incidentally, how do you know she's anaemic?

No, Marina, it just doesn't sit well w/me b/c lambs are babies. As it is, we don't eat any meat that isn't ethically reard and doesn't come from a nearby farm - only have it about 2-3 times/week.

Stuff the HV and get some Floradix - I use the gluten-free, but it does work a treat. Only 5mL a day and she's not had ANY problems at all.

Raisins and wholemeal bread are high in iron - HV gave me a list of foods that were for ds but I've lost it. These are the two I can remember. Have you tried looking on the NHS website and see if they have a list of things. I remember that a lot of the things on there surprised me.

Don't look into how duck is farmed then, FioFio - or buy organic!

dark chocolate is rich in iron

a square of Green and Black's a day won't do any harm

Dd2 collapsed about a month ago (the day after ds was born) and she had loads of tests done in hospital. The good news is that they couldn't find anything too serious, but they did fiind that she is anaemic.

Raiains she won't touch, but she does eat wholemeal bread sometimes.

Second expat- Floradix or Spatone. DS1 went through a phase of eating really no iron rich foods, but floradix and Spatone kept his levels up. Spatone is iron rich mineral water that comes in sachets. Less sticky than Floradix, but Floradix has the advantage of otehr minerals/vitamins.

We buy yearling lamb from our organic butchers so I suppose they are technically teenagers or even mutton . But yes, we don't eat spring lamb, fair point. But the pigs and chickens we eat are not that old either...