Iron Deficiencies in BF Babies + BLW

[chix99]

My dd had her 6 month check up today. While my ped was supportive of us going the BLW route, she also stressed that in Breastfed babies, at around the 4-6 month range, their iron levels go way down, and not enough is transferred through breastmilk. Thus, she urged me to feed her cereal (Rice or oatmeal) in addition to any table fooed I might give her. And, not homemade oatmeal or rice cereal, but the instant/fortified kind, where you just mix it with your breastmilk.

I typically trust my ped - they are progressive in many ways - but this seems strange to me.

First - that breastmilk is not the "nature's perfect food" and two, she pushing me to buy an "instant" cereal just b/c it's fortified?

Any other advice? I was thinking - beans have iron in them, right? couldn't I cook up some beans real soft and give them to her too if iron is really the concern here?

[Ldavis24]

I literally had the exact same conversation with my ped and got into an argument about how I flat out refused to feed DD any cereal. Not interested thanks. He then insisted that I had to give DD an actual supplement in drop form and I pretty said goodbye...
I just try to make sure DD eats some kind of iron rich food, dark greens generally, she also is perfectly happy to eat spinach so she gets that!

[bandgeek]

Heh. Tell that to my DD, who's hemoglobin was 15.9 at 6 months and 13.something at 9 months. Strictly on breastmilk.

I wouldn't do an iron supplement unless the child actually needed one and "being breastfed" isn't a good enough reason because obviously not all breastfed kids have low iron.

I wouldn't do cereal simply because it's lacking nutritionally. If you're going to do cereal, might as well just do the supplement ya know?

IF there's actually an iron deficiency, I'd choose a food that *naturally* has iron so the iron will be absorbed well. And pair it with something rich in vitamin C.

ETA: I wouldn't NOT feed her iron rich foods if her iron was fine, I just wouldn't see the point in pushing them if that were the case.

[chix99]

Ladies,
Thanks for your input. Love hearing real world stories.
I did some more research - of course at kellymom, holy grail that it is.
Check out this VERY interesting article regarding this exact topic:
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/iron.html

[Bokonon]

My EBF, solids-resistant baby is severely anemic, but she was a preemie. The ped. did a blood test to check, and we do have to do iron drops, because she won't eat food. But for a full-term baby, that's pretty uncommon.