Foods High in Iron

[~Angie~]

DS just had blood work done recently and we found out that his iron is a little low. We started him on a multi vitamin. I am just wondering what foods are high in iron that we can include in his diet?

Thanks 

[tylersmommy]

Meat, egg yolk, and iron fortified foods (like most adult cereals) come to mind. I've even been known to stir some iron fortified infant cereal into Tyler's applesauce. ;)Giving a vitamin C food, like fruit or juice, at the same time helps the body absorb iron, and giving a dairy food at the same time can inhibit iron absorption.

[ryan's mum]

ready brek cereal , wholemeal bread , broccoli , green beans , cabbage and dried fruit .

[~Angie~]

Thanks ladies!  I hadn't heard that about juice and milk. Might explain why his iron is low. We always have milk with meals. I guess we'll switch to juice or water with meals.

[tylersmommy]

What we do is serve iron rich foods for breakfast, like cereal, egg yolk french toast, or scrambled egg, and offer vitamin C fruit with it. We keep water in the sippy until lunch (or sometimes watered down OJ), then switch to milk. It helps us limit his milk intake too...he's drink gallons of it if we let him!

[~Angie~]

Thanks, I'll try that.  DS would also drink milk all day if we let him. 

[Lilah'sMommy]

Beans!  Beans are a great iron food.  We're vegetarian, so we depend on beans and lentils for a good bit of protein as well as iron.  Also tempeh, spinach, kale... pretty much any dark leafy green... those are all iron-rich.  But not such big hits with toddlers.

I don't worry about milk consumption, as dd would drink nothing all day long if I didn't constantly push fluids.  She never takes in enough at one time for me to worry too much about iron absorption.

[Mum to cool dude]

beef and lamb too