baby-one
My baby is 16 months and won't touch any sort of meat in any shape or form. Fish and chicken included. Any ideas of trying to get some into her? She does have the tinned food that has some in and also muelied vegies too. She seems quite healthy though.
yes meat can be a ‘no thanks’ for many bubs, it has quite a coarse texture and red meat has a strong flavour and smell. I am guessing you have tried mince and things like tinned salmon in things like frittatas and mashed potato etc.
A great iron boost is infant iron-fortified baby cereal. You can add it to smoothies, sprinkle over cereal and so on. It has a similar iron uptake as meat so is very absorbable.Keep trying various forms of meat, homemade rissoles, sausages, meat balls, try chicken mince, even fish has some iron. Even bacon and egg pie, try slow cooked meat which falls apart and doesn’t need to be chewed and so on. Also, keep you eye out for iron-fortified food options, there are quite a few about. Ensure you offer a wide array of plant proteins and if you can with foods that have vitamin C (which helps the uptake of iron from foods).
Of course there are lots of vegetarian children out there who are very healthy and do just fine. The trick with vegetarian diets is to try to offer two protein foods at each meal (eg. egg and cheese) to cover all the essential amino acids.
I have a fact sheet on Huggies on iron, if you wanted to read a little more the link is below:
Iron
http://www.huggies.com.au/BeingAParent/FeedingYourBaby/KidsHealthIssues/Iron-Deficiency-in-children.asp
Also, here is a bit of a list of foods with iron:
• Breakfast cereal with added iron, average serve – 3.0mg
• Lentils, dried peas or beans, 2/3 cup cooked – 2.5mg
• Cashews, 25 nuts (50g) – 2.5mg
• Soy burger, iron fortified (60g) – 2.2mg
• Marmite, 1 teaspoon (5g) – 1.8mg
• Wholegrain bread, 1 slice (34g) – 1.6mg
• Dried apricots, 10 halves (50g) – 1.6mg
• Baked beans, 100g – 1.6mg
• Bok choy, 1cup (100g) – 1.3mg
• Tofu, 1 block, cooked (100g) – 1.2mg
• Fish e.g. canned red salmon 沼cup (100g) – 1.2mg
• Rolled oats, dry, 1/3 cup (30g) – 1.1mg
• Prunes, 7 pieces (50g) – 1.1mg
• Wheatgerm, 1 tablespoon (10g) – 1.0mg
• Almonds, 20-25 nuts (25g) – 1.0mg
• Egg, poached (50g) – 1.0mg
• Broccoli, cooked 2/3 cup (100g) – 1.0mg
• Sunflower seeds, 1 tablespoon (15g) – 0.7mg
• Wholemeal bread, 1 slice (30g) – 0.7mg
• Chicken, skinless, baked (80g) – 0.6mg
• White bread, 1 slice (28g) – 0.3mg
Ultimately, if your toddler is eating a varied diet and some of the tips above are working, then she is very likely to be doing just fine.
Hope that helps
All the best and have a great Festive Season
Leanne