High Iron Foods

How about grapes, that is what I was told to eat when my iron was low after delivering my twins almost 18 years ago, and it worked.

Hi C.. Dr. Sears has a list of high-iron foods on his website. Here's the link...

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/T043100.asp#T043107

Good luck.

Have you tried liverwurst? My daughter loves it.

Does your daughter like spaghetti? An old trick that has never failed is heating up tomato sauce in an iron skillet. The acidity of the tomatoes releases iron from the skillet and is absorbed into the sauce. None of the women in my family have ever had an iron problem ad we attribute it to this easy solution. Also, I pulled this list from www.wholesomebabyfood.com:

FOODS THAT ARE IRON RICH

breast milk & iron-fortified infant formula
dried beans
winter squash
sweet potatoes
broccoli
mushrooms
meat & poultry (beef, beef & chicken liver, pork, turkey, chicken)
greens (spinach, broccoli, beet, tomato )
egg yolks
dried fruit (figs, apricots, prunes, raisins)
prune juice
tofu
grains (cooked cracked wheat, wheat germ, cornmeal, millet, brown rice, farina, bran, breads, iron fortified cereals)
blackstrap molasses (try adding a little to cereal when baby is over 10 months old)
brewer's yeast
shellfish (clams, oysters, shrimp)
tuna, sardines, canned salmon

Hope this helps.

Hi C.~
I'm surprised no one else suggested this to you, but if your daughter has low iron, you can cook in cast iron cookware. Very small amounts of the iron from the cookware will absorb into the food cooked in it. I really don't know how it happens, but I know it does. It was suggested to me long ago by my then MIL and the dr okayed it so I got a skillet and cooked in it and still do, actually.
Good luck with your daughter and her diet. I'm sure she'll be fine.
J.~

I am low in iron, myself, being pregnant... an important part of iron intake is to follow it up with vitaminC which helps the body absorb the iron. So after a iron-fortified cereal, drink some juice high in vitamin C. Also, dried apricots are high in iron. But the best suggestion my healthcare provider gave was dark chocolate. Especially in the form of drinking chocolate. 1-2 cups of hot cocoa (like Green and Black's or another brand which has 80-100 percent cocoa bean) is nice this time of year. But for a 4-year-old, i would ask if that is okay because it might be too much for her age and cocoa also has some caffeine.

Look for cereals high in iron. Mighty Bites by kashi has about 50% of her iron requirements for the day.

There's a ton of iron in the dark green veggies.

If she likes apple sauce, you could mix in some baby cereal into her apple sauce. That's high in iron. My daughter also likes Earth's Best fruit bars, which are like Nutri-Grain bars for toddlers except they have 20% of the iron kids need in a day.

Hi C.
What about molasses cookies? Sometimes you can even sneak raisins into cookies and kids will eat them.
My best thought. Why is the iron count low? and are you giving vit. with iron? Did MD order iron?
Go to your health food store and ask them what else you can do, the people here are superb with special dietary needs.
Also if possible talk to your mom, she may have some great ideas, and maybe some stories to tell
God bless you
K. SAHM married 38 years --- adult children --- 37, 32, and twins 18 and in college.

Hi C.,

I have an iron deficiency and wanted to start my daughter off proper so that she would be better off than I. She eats just about anything and loves greens so, I am very lucky. The things I list are things that we snack on.

You may want to try edemame (soy beans in their pods lightly steamed, my daughter loves popping them out), black beans, hard boiled eggs, oats (cooked as oatmeal or dry flakes), broccoli (steamed or raw), kale (steamed with a bit of braggs or tamari).

Lastly, and very important.... make sure your daughter has vitamin C with the iron. Broccoli has both!!! Iron is absorbed with vitamin c. Otherwise you are not getting the iron that you put in your body. Tomatoes are good, so are potatoes, kiwi, red yellow orange peppers, papaya, mango and kohlrabi.

I hope this helps.
P.

YoBaby yogurt (the green 6 pack mixed w/cereal) has 45% of a toddler's daily allowance of Iron. That may help. Also, as someone else mentioned, the Earth's Best line (Sesame) makes many Iron fortified foods like breakfast cereal, oatmeal, crackers, etc.

I have found some interesting alternative foods that supply iron, when I can't get my son to eat his spinach or broccoli. The Sesamee Street yogurt rice bars have 25% of the daily iron requirement, as do the organic cereal bars you can buy. Often, soy products have iron as well. We give my son these soy nuggets (look like chicken nuggets, in the refrigerator section of the grocery store) that have a ton of iron. Cereals, like cheerios and kix, have almost 50% of the daily iron requirement!

Don't give up on veggies though. Spinach balls (made with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs), broccoli with cheese sauce, etc.

And beef broth based soups too!

Dear C.,

Ditto on what Hannah suggested also spinach nuggets are very good. I am not sure if you have a Shoprite Market by you but they sell them and they are actually not bad tasting. Have a great holiday!!

Have your daughter try to some soy milk or try some kind of nuts, like pistachios. Also, try some sort a protien/iron rich natural drink or smoothie (Green Goodness).

Mix the raisins with some honey roasted cashews...

My 4 year old daughter now chows them down!

Hi C., red grapes & apricots are high in iron. Also try high iron cereals. Lok for high iron beans - edemame. Also, there are some nuts that have higher iron than others. Farina is very healthy & has iron & calcium. Will your daughter eat fish - salmon is a great fish for kids to start eating & has iron. Spinach (fresh is best) & broccoli has a little iron. You can google high iron foods there might be such a variety of high iron foods that you dont even realize. The Kashi lne of foods has more iron than other foods/cereals/cereal bars

Good Luck...
J. B