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Attachment Parenting
BLW and Iron ?
Hi all, I mostly stick to my birth board but I know many of you practice BLW so I thought I'd ask here. DD had her 6 month appointment today. Of course the food question came up. We started on DD's 6month birthday with Avocado and she did great. The CNA chastized me for not starting with rice cereal and kept repeating that DD would never get enough iron unless I used the iron-cereal. I've read the BLW book, and tons of blogs and all say iron supplements are not necessary in most healthy babies, but have any of you had pedis/doctors be supportive of BLW and not doing the cereal? Or do you BLW and do cereal? We're finding a new doctor for a number of reasons, but need some reassurance that I'm not a bad mom for skipping cereal
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Re: BLW and Iron ?
We have not done "cereal". And if I did/do, it will definitely be some sort of whole grain cereal, not the typical white rice cereal.
LO does love cheerios though! (which has lots of iron in it) We just try to give her iron rich foods and have asked for an iron screening - Pedi says we can do that at 9 month visit. I don't really talk to my Pedi about BLW - he is not familiar with it at all. (I would change but the next closest pedi is 45 minutes away)
I don't know why they make such a fuss over iron. You can also introduce meats as a first food, so babies can get iron that way.
At DS's 6 month appointment, they were concerned that I wasn't giving him and cereals or that I wasn't giving him an iron suppliment. He HATED the stuff and I didn't blame him. It tasted like crap and he stunk all day after taking it (IF you can say that spitting it all over was taking it. )
Anyway, the pedi did an iron test and DS had a level of 12.5. The pedi said that was great but that we'd keep an eye on it. I'll ask her to check at the 9 month appointment too just for my own peace of mind.
You baby is born with iron stores that should last for the first 6 months & a bit longer.
The iron in rice cereal is not as bioavailable as the iron in your milk, so rice cereal is not the answer. I agree with the PP about trying meats if you're concerned.
I know that every child is different, but I'll share our experience. Our DD exclusively nursed for 6 months then we did BLW. She didn't eat solids regularly until she was 10 months old. At 12 months I requested to have her iron levels checked and they were in a normal range.