The panic about giving cereal comes from a time when scientists didn't really understand what was happening with breastmilk. When bm is studied it looks as though it contains fairly low amounts of iron but what has only been recently appreciated is that the iron that is there is so incredibly 'bioavailable' and easily absorbed by the body.
Between 20% and 40% of the iron in breast milk is absorbed, helped by the vitamin C and high lactose levels, only 4% absorbed from iron-fortified formula.
A study of babies exclusively bfed until 7 months showed that they had actually HIGHER levels of iron than their counterparts that were given solid food earlier.
Kellymom refers to this:
"Healthy, full-term infants who are breastfed exclusively for periods of 6-9 months have been shown to maintain normal hemoglobin values and normal iron stores. In one of these studies, done by Pisacane in 1995, the researchers concluded that babies who were exclusively breastfed for 7 months (and were not give iron supplements or iron-fortified cereals) had significantly higher hemoglobin levels at one year than breastfed babies who received solid foods earlier than seven months. The researchers found no cases of anemia within the first year in babies breastfed exclusively for seven months and concluded that breastfeeding exclusively for seven months reduces the risk of anemia."
Misunderstanding about iron is one of the reasons the UK is doing pretty dismally in meeting its target of 6 month exclusive breastfeeding. People are worrying unnecessarily.
More here
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1SFS/is_5_81/ai_n25410288/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1And HVs are sometimes confused too.
As you probably know babies are also born with stores of iron from mum and this last somewhere between 6-12 months. Hard to say when but 6 months for a full term baby who was over 6lbs at birth is VERY unusual. The iron stores are laid down in the last trimester so prematurity is a factor. As it appears is also a low birth weight and whether a mother has diabetes in pregnancy.
But don't forget that iron is found in plenty of other non-cereal foods. If you are going the BLW route there is dried fruits like apricots, prunes and figs, green leafy veg like broccoli and asparagus (anything with dark green). Little balls made out of chopped spinach, apple and something else (iron is absorbed well when vitamin c is happening in the same meal.)
If you are not a BLW person and want to go down the puree route you can whizz up some dried apricots and figs into a puree no problem with a little water or milk. And obviously spinach can be whizzed into things. And red meat comes along soon enough. Josie has had some organic mince meatballs.
As I said on your other thread Josie has never even been offered rice cereal. I also don't fancy the expressing just for cereal business. Seriously - why bother? One of the beauty of weaning later is that it can be more colourful, varied and interesting. Imagine how exciting it must be for them when they start feeding for the first time and we offer them rice cereal! Is it physically possible for food to BE any more boring?
Ask your doctor to confirm all this. Don't just take my word for it. Your HV too will almost certainly have heard of BLW by now and there is certainly no cereal going on there. Our HVs and local feeding coordinator don't even blink when a mum starts BLW at 6 months with no cereal in sight. (I attend a drop-in as a bf counsellor and hear them chatting to mums about solid food. NEVER heard them advocate cereal once in several months.)
Food should be fun! About taste and colour and texture. Certainly also about nutrients and iron obviously but rice cereal has had some great PR because it really isn't the only source of iron but we seem to think it has magical properties.
And if you want to see what a non-cereal baby looks like at 9 months I would show you a video of Josie crawling so fast she is a blur and trying to climb up everything that moves.
