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how to ensure he gets enough iron?

Julia - posted on 02/24/2010 ( 3 moms have responded )

137

Since a moth before my last post I have not been giving any meat to my son (15months), (he had maybe 10 times in his live a little bit of meat so not much) and really tried to keep his diet as balanced as possible. Nevertheless he looks very pale and has circles under his eyes that tell me his iron is too low. He eats chick peas, beans, quinoa, lentils,... I combine every iron food with vitamin c....
The thing is that he's been nursing a lot lately and I know that my iron might be low, too, it was at least when i was pregnant...
Any recommendations what else I could do or if I need to do anything different?
I have started to take supplements to ensure my milk is providing him with iron, would it be a good idea to start him on supplements, too? Have any of you experienced similar things?

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Anne - posted on 04/03/2010

422

It's easy and better to get iron from vegetarian sources. Too much iron is toxic and leads to many serious health conditions. The animal form is haem and is absorbed without control whereas with the non-haem vegetarian form your body takes only what is needed. It is easy to get plenty of iron from vegetables. I have been vegetarian for 20 years and for approximately the last 10 I have been very relaxed about my diet. After a lot of reseach I realised that as long as I eat a wide range of veg (which I do because it's yummy) then there is no need to worry about combining things and incorporating specific items, trying hard to include protein and iron foods - it just happens naturally. I am the only one of my female friends who has never been anemic but that doesn't stop me getting the lecture about how I need meat and I will be short of iron! I don't supplement either - not saying it's not wise to give your son a supplement if he needs it - just don't think you have to because he is veggie. Tiffany is quite right the dark circles could be hereditory or they could also be because of allergy to something or maybe he is going through a growth spurt and is tired - would explain the extra nursing too.
I had dark circles as a baby but not after I turned veggie and my little girl who has been veggie from birth has never had them so not linked to vegetarianism in our cases.

Everyone's iron is low during pregnancy - you suddenly get a lot more blood pumping round your body. My OBGYN explained this and told me my iron was very good compared with normal pregnancy low levels.

Julia - posted on 03/26/2010

137

Thanks Tiffany, it definitely got better now, we are giving him half a chewable of "VegLife-Vegan kids multiple" now, anyone's got experience with it?

The dark winter time might as well have contributed to his paleness we're all fair haired and light skinned....We also saw the doctor today and he has no complaints about my son's health. So all seems good now! cheers!

Tiffany - posted on 03/18/2010

Sorry this response is so late! You might want to consider a baby multivitamin, which was suggested to me by my pediatrician. Iron is not transferred through breast milk in adequate amounts, and baby's iron stores are technically supposed to last up to 5 months in age. After that you'll want to start feeding iron-righ foods...there are plenty of fortified baby cereals and finger foods that help with this.

Sounds to me like you've been doing all the right things, food-wise...you might also want to consider the fact that dark circles are hereditary! If you or baby's dad have them, chances are that genes could be the culprit.

If you've tried the multivitamin and continued to feed iron-rich foods without seeing an improvement, I would DEFINITELY speak to a pediatrician.

Cheers!