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Iron and Vitamin D - help please :)
We had DD's 1 year check up yesterday - she's still nursing 3-4 times at night and morning and is on solids all day plus I just introduced whole milk with lunch.
She was slightly iron deficient, so the dr said to put her on baby vitamins, and he said also with the whole Vitamin D issue and the AAP stance on it, it can't hurt to get extra vitamin D because they'd have to drink a quart of milk to get enough/day.
What do you think? What would you do? I keep thinking maybe I should try getting her more iron rich foods, because until now I've been against vitamins because I felt like she was getting everything through breastmilk and her food.
She was slightly iron deficient, so the dr said to put her on baby vitamins, and he said also with the whole Vitamin D issue and the AAP stance on it, it can't hurt to get extra vitamin D because they'd have to drink a quart of milk to get enough/day.
What do you think? What would you do? I keep thinking maybe I should try getting her more iron rich foods, because until now I've been against vitamins because I felt like she was getting everything through breastmilk and her food.
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Re: Iron and Vitamin D - help please :)
My doctor told me that DD gets more iron (that she can use) through breastfeeding than she would get in a supplement. I would just try more iron rich foods. I think that sounds like a good idea.
What I do is at least 5-10 minutes of sun exposure per day (no sunscreen) combined with her eating homemade baby food of lentils for lunch and a meat for dinner. That way she gets beans every day, white meats/fish most nights of the week, and beef twice a week. Nice variety. My DD has no iron deficiency problems and I truly believe it's b/c she eats beans each and every day. High fiber, good source of protein and iron. And... the best part (LOL) is that she's desensitized to the beans after eating them every day for so long that she never farts from them! LOL! She'll thank me in her later years, I'm sure :P
I just spent the morning w/ a nutrionist at a mother's meeting!
Here's the whole vitamin D thing. It's not really a vitamin, but a hormone trigger. All milk has vitamin D added (not just the red, but because it's fatty, they have to put something on the label to make you want to buy it).
If you live south of Kentucky, between the months of November & February, get 20-30 minutes of unprotected sun exposure a day. This can be outside or through a bright window. That will give you 10,000-15,000 international units of vitamin D.
If you live in Kentucky or north, this is where supplements come in. It's best for a nursing mother to consume the supplement, not give vitamins to a baby/child. You want the most natural form.
In fact, everyone needs vitamin D to help absorb calcium! Otherwise, calcium can build up in your veins. Ew.
There are NO foods that naturally contain vitamin D.
I hope this helps!
Iron is best from food.
Dark greens, red meat cooked to medium, wild caught fish like Salmon, even cooking in a cast iron skillet will give you the best iron.
Vitamins are not regulated by the FDA (although they can pull them from the shelves if they desire). Not all vitamins contain the amounts they claim, or can contain things not listed on the label.
Although the ped is insistent on vitamins, dd hates them. She only gets them when I am at work and she gets expressed bm or formula, so it can be put in the bottle. So at most 3x/week.
ds ate spinach and even bits of liver more willingly than vitamins at that age, now he has one brand of vitamins that he likes and it's being discontinued!!
I read that babies only get 60% of their daily vitamin D requirements from breastmilk. Living in Canada, being outside in winter time with a new born is not an option. I plan to use D-Vi-Sol which is liquid Vit. D for DC when he/she arrives....I generally supplement 1000 iu for myself daily. This is the only vitamin I plan to supplement for DC while I'm breastfeeding.