How to get the iron in ...

[Thaleia]

Hi,

If a baby at 8,9 months only eats small portions of meat (as more interested in fruit) and is otherwise ebf, how do I make sure that his iron levels are ok? I have noticed that the drops do not contain it.

Thanks!

My ds loves spinach, bizarrely! Things like spinach tart and cheese and spinach muffins.

Green leafy veg should do the trick. You can create interesting blends of fruit & veg if that will help entice him! Check out the Ella's Kitchen pouches in the supermarket for inspiration but what we did was to buy a pretty random selection of fruit & veg, making sure that there were a variety of colours involved, bung them all the the slow cooker & mash at the end. DS loved the stuff!

Agree that spinach is good. We do a mushroom spinach polenta thing that you make, let set, cut into fingers and fry. It's meant to be a finger food but its pretty soft so could be fed on a spoon. I can look it out and post the recipe if you like?

According to the NHS website, good sources of iron include:

liver
meat
beans
nuts
dried fruit, such as dried apricots
wholegrains, such as brown rice
fortified breakfast cereals
soybean flour
most dark-green leafy vegetables, such as watercress and curly kale

Vitamin C aids iron absorption so maybe try to give Vit C rich food in the same meal?

I also try to make sure DS gets plenty of iron in his diet, as he has been on iron supplements since birth due to being premature, but has been refusing to take them recently.

You don't need to worry about it at all. I never saw a thread on here with a mum stressing about iron levels until the formula companies started those very clever iron adverts.

Have a read of what kellymom says on iron. Did you know too that babies who are weaned later, at 7 months have higher iron levels than their peers at 7 months? The research also says that iron stores MAY start to decrease after 6 months. If its something you are particularly worried about, and are thinking of having more babies, think about having the cord cut only after it has stopped pulsating.

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