Question about my daughter's iron levels

[Angel'sCandy]

Hi Tania, i know that you mainly deal with women but i was wondering if you could help me out with my daughter's low iron. she is 2.5yrs, won't eat much red meat, eats oranges, i have a multi-vitamin for her and was wondering if i should also give her some viatmin c aswell. is there anything else that might help??

Thanks, Kelly.

[naturopathonline]

Hi There,

It's not uncommon for toddlers to be low in iron, esspecially if they are fussy eaters!

I would reccomend that your little girl stay on her multivitamin - you may even want to speak to your local naturopath to see if she is taking the right one for her or if there is something more specific that would help boost her nutrients - you may have to keep her on a specific childrens multivitamin until she is a bit older and a little bit more adventurous with her food.

The best way to boost iron is through the diet and the best way to get a fussy eater to eat meat is disguise it - try making a mince sauce with some red capsicum for vitamin C and speading it on toast fingers for her to chew on.

The good thing about children is they have no preconcieved ideas about food - so try new things you might be surprised at what she will eat.

Making food fun is the key to getting little ones to try new things.

Lots of variety will help too try to make sure that every time she has food containing iron that she also has a slice of orange or other vitamin C food to maximize absorption.

Iron is found in apricots, parsley, pine nuts, soy beans, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, poultry and red meat.

Vitamin C is found in black currants, broccoli, citrus fruit, parsley, capsicum, pineapple and potatoes.

Try cooking different combinations of things - mash them all together - you can thoroughly grind grind seeds and pine nuts, add parsley to everything and experiment!

Try chicken with brocolli and ground up pine nuts or mince with parsley and apricots the combinations are endless. She will only need a little of iron foods daily to help get her back on track.


All the best - have fun in the kitchen!

Tania

[Angel'sCandy]

thankyou so much for those ideas - i will definately be trying them soon!!!