Iron for little boys?

[k@rm@_girl]

Hi-

Just wondering what some of the other Moms have done to get a good source of iron in their little boy's diet. My son is 6, and we eat vegetarian meals, mostly vegan because I am vegan but the rest of our family is vegetarian. My daughter who is 9 is a good eater and loves things like spinach but my son is very picky. I can't get him to eat many green veggies and when we have meals with lots of veggies I always have to cook him something separate. Anyway, I think that despite the multivitamins he might not be getting enough iron. Any tricks anyone can suggest?

[Wolfie]

Maybe put blackstrap mollasses on his cereal, if he likes that? Of course if he's picky he may not because that has a pretty strong taste.

[k@rm@_girl]

Hi Wolfie..
I've never tried that myself. Do you put it in oatmeal?

[thebelovedtree]

Watermelon is high in iron! and its the best food on earth :)

[kristadb]

btw, spinach = not good for iron. please do not rely on spinach.

cream of wheat, oatmeal, beans and lentils, and eggs are all good sources of iron.

[pavlovskitty]

My 18 mo son's iron probably comes from fortified cereals. He's on veggie strike right now too.

[kristadb]

they go on strike all the time. I'm finding that J (who refused to eat for 2 days straight once) is 7 and has been eating everything served to him, no matter how much he may or may not like it. Mostly b/c he's spurting again, so he's ALWAYS hungry; and crappy food is better then no food.

[smedley]

they go on strike all the time. I'm finding that J (who refused to eat for 2 days straight once) is 7 and has been eating everything served to him, no matter how much he may or may not like it. Mostly b/c he's spurting again, so he's ALWAYS hungry; and crappy food is better then no food.
ill debate you here as a children are not going to starve themselves. when a child is hungry, he will eat.

[rabid_child]

Molasses is very good in oatmeal! I put it in oatmeal with a bit of vanilla and some brown sugar. I would start off with a little bit and work your way up though since its rather strong tasting. You could make popcorn with nutritional yeast for a snack. Most breakfast cereals are iron fortified too.

However, too much iron in a young child can cause iron poisoning. Before making a big increase in his iron intake, i'd check with his doctor and maybe have his iron levels checked, because I honestly don't know how much is too much, but I know it can be toxic if you're at that point.

[kristadb]

ill debate you here as a children are not going to starve themselves. when a child is hungry, he will eat.

You can debate, but he refused to eat for 2 days straight, having only apple juice b/c "I don't like <insert whatever food item is in front of him>"

He did that several times; would ask for potato chips for supper, obviously no one would give it to him, so he refused to eat until someone gave him potato chips. No one did. So he turned his nose up at every meal. Personally, i think he raided the kitchen when everyone was sleeping and just blamed his younger brother, but :juggle:

[Wolfie]

Hi Wolfie..
I've never tried that myself. Do you put it in oatmeal?

Actually I don't really like the stuff, but that does mean your son won't. My little nephew eats all kinds of things I wouldn't. My dad, however, really likes it on oatmeal.

[Kyo]

Karma_girl;

I wonder how much iron is in the multivitamins for your boy. There might be enough so you don't need to worry about it. As others have mentioned you can get iron fortified cereals.

I agree with krista that spinach ISN'T a good source of iron so you shouldn't depend on that. Someone mentioned that watermelon is a good source of iron but I looked it up in the USDA Nutrient Database and 1 cup of diced watermelon has 0.36 mg of iron according to them. That isn't very much so watermelon ISN'T a good source of iron either.

All molasses isn't equal. Blackstrap molasses is loaded with iron; other types of molasses have a lot less so watch what kind you're getting. I never thought about putting molasses in oatmeal; it sounds like a good idea. I'm able to put quite a bit of it in flax muffins and Boston backed beans.

Vitamin C increases the iron absorption a lot so you can see that your boy gets a source of vitamin C along with the iron.

[rincaro]

I'll second the vote to be careful with iron for boys. Our boys take the standard multivitamin and other than that I don't worry too much about their iron intake. If I went all crazy trying to get tons of iron in their diet I would worry about the iron overload for the little guys!

[veganmuncher]

coco coco coco, coco pops! mmm and a glass of orange juice with it, the orange juice helps the iron to be absorbed and is rather tasty..