Meat? Iron? Salt?

[chatname]

Junior is 6 months old and has just started weaning .

We started with veggies - carrot, butternut squash, courgette, broccoli.

There is some iron in the broccoli I guess, but I realise that the best source is meat!

We went - v middle class this sounds!- to the restaurant in John Lewis yesterday and I was pleased to note they had some roasted veggies just the right size and shape for blw. These were alongside some roasted ham, which I had. I also gave him a wodge of ham to suck, thinking, good, protein and iron in those juices. I made sure it was big enough for him to suck on and that bits weren't going to fall off and be hard to swallow.

Then it occurred to me that those juices prob also contained a fair bit of salt (and that the veggies might have had salt added, which we don't do at home) and felt a bit thick. He has been offered water but much prefers milk, and has been drinking quite a lot of breast milk overnight, but seems quite chipper. We will avoid stuff with salt over the weekend! To be honest, he is only in the stage of gumming the food, so is not taking much solid in, though I want to be careful.

Any advice on a) giving meat in the early stages and b) how to get iron into them? c) any more advice on the salt thing?

a) now he is 6m he can (if you have no allergy ishoos) have anything you do except honey, shellfish and choky things like nuts. So a biug yes to meat, fish, etc

b) green veg, fruit meat and pulses ie normal food. Iron in bm is much more easily absorbed than iron in formula (or indeed in food) so bm is actually a pretty good source of iron for a 6mo

c) salt - don't stress too hard. Don;t add it to anything, don;t use gravy or packet stock and remember that 'bought' foods (cheese, ham, bread) are saltier than 'raw' things like porridge / veg / fruit. I bought unsalted butter for dd which made me feel better if nothing else.
NB a one-off 'salty' day as you describe occasionally won;'t hurt - it's constant intake over weeks and months that's more relevant.