Whats The Deal With Iron For Babies?

Iron needs and offering high iron foods to babies is something we talk about quite frequently. For good reason too! Did you know a 7 - 12 month old baby actually has similar iron needs to an adult male and that iron deficiency anemia is really common in young children? Its often misrepresented that babies on formula don't require extra iron however since the iron in formula is so poorly absorbed its recommended to offer high iron foods to all babies in the early days regardless of which milk they consume!

In all honesty meeting the RDI of 11mg per day is fairly unrealistic in the early days. Its a huge amount and most babies are only consuming small amounts of food. This makes it even more important that those small amounts of food that they do consume are nutrient dense and contain good amounts of iron!

In this article you will find our iron cheat sheet showing different sources of iron and a sample meal plan of what it would take to actually meet the 11mg per day!