Talk to me about iron rich foods.

[SheSellsSeashellsByTheSeashore]

Dd1 has been diagnosed as 'borderline' anemic. The doctor thinks this is because she doesn't eat enough, not because her body has problems processing iron.

We are being reffered to a peadatric nutritionist, but in the meantime she needs to eat foods high in iron.

I know chicken, red meat, leafy greens etc. Is theer anything else? Any good recipes that would be appealing to a five year old who doesn't eat?

sardines on whole mealbread
beans on whole mealbread

both of these would give a good iron content

Oh and masses of peanut butter sandwiches for extra calories and snacks.
It is tricky when they have zero appetite, but peanut butter packs a lot into a small mouthful.

She usually has her snack before dance and dinner afterwards. So she could have her dairy then and her iron meal for dinner.

She often eats cereal without milk. She prefers it that way. She has her milk in a glass instead, but I could easily swap that to juice.

Oat and sultana cookies sound nice. She could help make those, she tends to eat more if she is able to hep with the preparation of foods.

The doc is pushing the appoinment forward so we should get seen by the nutritionist shortly. He is concerned that it is affecting her schooling as she is constantly ill. If her friends get the sniffles dd1 ends up laid up in bed with full blown flu and very high temps. He thinks this is because she is not getting enough nutrients to suppott her body, due to not eating. Hence the anemia.

Iron-rich gingerbread, Marguerite Patten

8oz plain flour
2oz sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1-2tsp ground ginger
4oz butter
6oz black treacle
2oz golden syrup
1/4 pint milk
1 egg

Sift dry ingredients into bowl. Melt treacle, syrup and butter in saucepan, cool slightly then add to dry ingredients. Add milk, then lastly the egg, and beat thoroughly.

Bake in a greaseproof-lined, 7" tin for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours, 300-325 F, 150-170C, Gas mark 2-3.

Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Store in airtight container for several days before eating to allow flavour to develop & cake to moisten. Nice served with apple.

She likes Minadex, I'll call my nan and ask her to pick dd1 some up.

My sons immune system was also totally blown by the aenemia. This is not fixed in a day, not even in a couple of weeks. This will take a while.

I had to change his diet, our family dinners, and all his snack and drinks aroun the iron and vit c content. A total dietary reharsh. My son was allergic to the ferrum he was prescribed, so we had to build his iron reserves up the long slow way. He is now fit and healthy. But we have a very good and balanced diet for it.

if you are looking at supplements, spatone is brilliant.

it's a couple of mouthfuls of iron-rich water (comes in sachets), which you can put into orange juice (or any other high vit C juice) to drink.

you can still taste it a bit, but it's easy to do, and you can also combine with vit C for easy absorption.

I had to drink it in my last pregnancy, as had really low iron levels - you can get it in most chemists iirc

I second the spatone they also have a great page on their website listing iron rich food many of which you wouldn't normally think of

here

Beautiful - that recipe is lovely for ginger bread and gets better when stored - which rarely happen in this house!

peanut butter cookies

Thanks curlywurly, that link suggests black pudding, which dd1 likes. So maybe black pudding and scramled eggs for breakfast some days.

I've just realised that the chart I refer to is vegan.
No mention of meat, fish and dairy. Must get another! Sorry, shesells. Ignore me.

Would she drink smoothies? You can make them with half fruit (banana, mango (I buy frozen fruit), pineapple etc) and half green leafy veg. The result is very green but tastes mostly fruity. So you get the iron and plenty of vit C for absorption. There is plenty of stuff on the internet if you look for green smoothies. Need quite a sturdy blender to do them.

Hmm she might. She likes smoothies, but I am not sure how she would feel about green smoothies. Perhaps if I buy a coloured cup with a lid and straw so she can't see the colour she will.

Parlsey, apparently.

Me too! I take a supplements called liposomal iron + a liposomal multi vitamins as well along woth green juicing or smoothies & do beets also an add chorella spirulina to my juice or smoothie + always doing a juice or smoothies with a type of vitamin C in it helps absorption so I always put orange juice or 2 full oranges in my smoothies or juicing