I‘ve been giving my 10-1/2 month baby girl with a Nestle infant cereal Cerelac since she was 6 months. Here in the Philippines, the iron content of Nestle Cerelac is 5 mg / 50 g of dry cereal. How much Iron content of infant cereal should be to be adequate in supplying iron nutrition to a growing baby? How much iron content in infant cereal in the U.S ? . Thank you.
always seeks the doctor's advice on these matters as too much iron can cause issues as well as not enough iron, also iron supplements served with other types of food help the body with the iron distribution.
Synthetic iron in baby cereals is very poorly absorbed, about 4-10%. If you are worried about the amount of iron in your babies diet (which you shouldn't be if they are eating at least 20oz of formula a day, or breastfed) then you should be adding easy to absorb sources. The easiest to absorb is heme iron found in meats, poultry, fish. Vitamin C is also key to the absorption of iron so be sure to add a source of that as well. Mixing heme and non-heme sources can make it easier to absorb the non-heme sources. So meat and spinach or beans is better than spinach or beans alone.
