I was told today that my daughter has low iron. That explains why she licks the walls and floors. Anyways we were told its normal for babies her age(she will be a year old this saturday) to have low iron because of changes in diet. Like switching to whole milk. Anyways we will be adding things to her diet to try and get her iron up to the normal level but would it be best to keep her on formula longer, like the Go and Grow formula, to help with the iron problems? I read that real milk can depleet the body further of iron if to much milk is consumed. Or should I try and control just by what she eats because she won‘t be able to drink formula forever. If diet can fix the problem thats the route I want to go. I don‘t want to give her drops and have her be constipated and have messed up teeth if I don‘t have to. Also do iron problems tend to go away?
Whole milk doesn't 'deplete' iron -- it just doesn't have any in it, so a toddler drinking lots of whole milk is likely to fill up on it and then not eat enough OTHER foods that have iron. I would speak with a nutritionist about your concerns. Depending on just how 'low' her iron is, minor dietary changes might well suffice (meat, green veggies, etc.) or they may recommend continuing with formula or giving supplements.
The best way to increase iron in the baby is to give him/her meat. Meat is high in iron. Just use your own meat and cut it up or puree it in the blender. Beef is higher than either fish or poultry. You can increase this iron by cooking or heating baby foods in cast iron. Studies done in the past by the Dept. of Agriculture found that just giving parents a set of cast iron pans eliminated all but pernicious iron issues (caused by a medical problem) in all at-risk infants. They would still be doing that if Republicans hadn't cut out the program that funded it. ($30 for a set a pans vs. $1,100 to treat anemia). As your baby gets a little older, fish, chicken, beans all add good amounts of iron requiring no other supplementation. You are correct that milk can deplete the body of further iron, but formula does the same thing. The only difference is that they add iron drops to formula. You can do the same by buying vitamin drops for infants at your pharmacy. Same stuff. Get your kid off the sugar (which is what provides most of the calories in formula) and eliminate formula. Anemia does tend to go away as the child is able to consume more items with iron in them.
