Should I use follow on milk for a vegetarian baby?

[doireallyneedaname]

Just that really. He’s 7 months on First Infant. I’d read follow on milk is a bit of a con so didn’t intend to, but as we are raising him vegetarian I’m starting to wonder if the extra iron in follow on milk wouldn’t hurt. He has plenty of lentils, beans & greens but apparently the iron from those isn’t absorbed as well as meats.

Anyone been in this situation?

Eggs are not particularly high in iron, around 1 mg and they contain something which inhibits the absorption of iron so not particularly a good source.

Just to put it into context. 7 months to 1 year they need 11mg of iron.

Hipp formula isn’t vegetarian it contains fish oil

I was going to say I don’t think formula is veggie, it’s got fish oil hasn’t it?
Follow on milk is a marketing ploy to get round advertising rules, stick with the normal one if it’s cheaper?
Lots of babies grow up veggie, India manage to have millions of people on a veg diet 😀

I think the only ones that are vegetarian are Kendamil, Sainsbury’s little ones and sma wysoy (which even though is soya is vege not vegan due to the vitamin d being derived from an animal source)

That isn’t a problem for us, I’m weaning him veggie apart from his milk.

In that case I would stick with what suits him as finding a milk that works for your baby is the best thing and first infant milk still has adequate iron in as it says 0-12 months on packaging 👍🏻

Tofu is rich in iron

This is interesting.

@Ginfordinner

This is interesting.

The information in that article has been known about for years, hasn’t it?

Doesn’t stop it being interesting, obviously, but it’s not exactly hot off the press.

I know it isn't new, but the OP wanted a list of iron rich foods

That is interesting - thank you!

So I’m going to start giving him Ready Brek in the mornings instead of normal oats, as nutritious as oats it isn’t going to give him as much as fortified Ready Brek. I still find it impossible to actually work out what amount of iron he consumes in a day given his foods are baby portions, but I’m really quite shocked at how little his formula provides!

@doireallyneedaname I honestly think there's a lot of anaemic babies around. They need more iron 7 to 12 months I think because any reserves they have when they are born are depleted by 6 months. I found out that our babies iron stores must have been depleted a while before that as he was found to be anaemic when tested. I should have realised and took more iron supplements myself when b feeding, losing a litre of blood during my c section probably didn't help matters. I didn't think of taking iron and no one mentioned it to me. 🤦‍♀️

Oh god! You’re probably right. What prompted you to get baby tested? Mine has been formula fed since around 4 weeks and combi fed before that, but he’s 8 months this week and as you can tell I’m pretty hell bent on getting him what he needs.. it’s just tough knowing how to do that exactly

@doireallyneedaname it was totally incidental. Baby had bits of blood and really moucousy stool so I was under paed when the usual dairy free and egg free diet didn't make a difference he did a load of blood tests. I think they tested a range of stuff and I found out he was anaemic. It was only tiny bits of blood occasionally so he wasn't losing blood this way. He showed no symptoms, I wish he was sleepy!! Now it makes me wonder if my toddler is. I think there's an online fibgervorick you can get pretty cheap. Was thinking of testing my toddler to see. 😳

Finger prick. Obvs you wouldn't want to finger prick a baby, but my toddler will cope! 😂

@doireallyneedaname and I think your babies iron from 0 to 6 months will depend on how you were during pregnancy as a lot of their iron stores will be from that.

@doireallyneedaname Veggie or not I think it's difficult getting babies their iron requirements. Bearing in mind you'd have to eat a lot of beans and meat and babies are probably not up for either!! They don't like the texture of meat, do they? I think the only way is to get some sort of baby supplement.

It’s a minefield isn’t it! Based on what I’ve read, I don’t understand why they say you should introduce supplements when a baby is taking less than 500ml formula p/day, because that’s still significantly less iron than they need, and it’s hard to make up the rest from food alone. I can’t imagine anyone giving a 6 month old some puréed steak

Then when you do venture in to the world of supplements, there’s all this stuff telling you that it’s far too easy to basically overdose a baby on iron with them!

I suppose we’ve overpopulated the planet without most people obsessively counting their baby’s iron intake, so we’re probably doing fine

I understand what people are saying about follow on milk - that it’s not nutritionally necessary and has been created to be exempt from advertising rules - but does that make it a ‘con’? It’s the same price as first milk (or the cow and gate I used to get was) and sometimes cheaper as they’re allowed to do offers on follow on milk.

Is there a huge downside I’m missing? Who is being conned?

The con is just that formula companies are not allowed to advertise or promote formula. So they created a new product 'follow on milk' to get round the rules.
But really the infant formula is fine for all babies

Yes @doireallyneedaname my toddler was probably anaemic as he'd only eat sweet smooth puree until about 9 months. He's probably anaemic now. There's vits like abidec tho that doesnt have loads of iron in.
A lot of babies don't like the texture of meat either. I'm just glad my toddler loves baked beans 😂Most bread has fortified wheat flour in and I think some pasta?

Gosh this has got me worried about my baby’s iron intake too! I’ve tried incorporating beans, spinach broccoli etc but didn’t know the exact amount of iron in them & unless they have huge quantities it’ll be really hard to make up 11mg a day! The wellbaby multivitamin only provides 2.2mg/ day as well. She’s already on ready brek in this morning hmmmm. I’m also weaning her veggie but even if I wasn’t looks like it would still be really hard to get the necessary amount!

I know! I wonder if that 11mg is accurate.. it is Dr Google, after all.