Iron foods for babies

Inserting baby foods with iron is very important, because when the baby stops breastfeeding exclusively and starts to feed at 6 months of age, its natural iron reserves have run out, so when introducing diversified feeding, the baby needs to eat:

Cooked red lentils: 2.44 mg Fe per 100 g of food; Parsley: 3.1 mg Fe per 100 g of food; Cooked egg yolk: 4.85 mg Fe per 100 g of food; Sweet potatoes: 1.38 mg Fe per 100g of food; Leek 0.7 mg of Fe per 100g of food; Lean veal: 2.4 mg of Fe per 100g of foodChicken: 2 mg of Fe per 100g of food; Lean lamb: 2.2 mg of Fe per 100g of food red beans: 7.1 mg Fe per 100 g of food; Papaya: 0.8 mg Fe per 100 g of food; Yellow peach: 2.13 mg Fe per 100 g of food; Watercress: 2.6 mg Fe per 100g of food.

Baby Iron Need (RDA)

The baby's need for iron increases dramatically at 6 months of age,

Babies from 0 - 6 months: 0.27 mg Babies from 7 to 12 months: 11 mg

It is only possible with an iron-rich diet to reach and supply the baby's daily iron needs, but it is common to introduce iron supplementation in drops to prevent iron deficiency.

The baby's need for iron increases a lot when he is 6 months old, because from 0 to 6 months the mother's milk is enough to supply his need of approximately 0.27 mg of iron per day because he has a natural reserve of iron for this stage of life, but when it is six months old until the first year, its intense development requires a much greater amount of 11 mg per day of iron. So at 6 months, or when you start to diversify your diet; it is common for pediatricians to prescribe iron supplementation.

How to Increase Baby Iron Absorption

Adding a tablespoon of orange juice to the vegetable cream or baby soup, will allow greater absorption of the iron present in the vegetables, which although it is in large quantities, its absorption is only possible in the presence of ascorbic acid. The iron present in foods of animal origin (egg yolk, meat) does not need anything to be absorbed but it is not advisable to offer more than 20g of meat to the baby per day and therefore it is not possible to offer a large amount of animal iron..