Baby Led Weaning ideas Question:
“Gill, what are your thoughts on ‘baby cereals?’ A lot of them out on the market say they are full of iron but there is hardly any iron in them and they are full of sugars, salts, nasty oils! And is fortified iron less absorbed by the human body?”
Gill Rapley’s response:
“According to Gabrielle Palmer (author of Complementary Feeding: Nutrition, Culture and Politics), the main reason cereal has become the go-to food for babies has nothing to do with its (limited) nutritional value and everything to do with the fact that it’s a cheap and plentiful staple food in most countries. Yes, cereals for babies are fortified with iron, but that is only because they are so low in iron naturally – to suggest them as a main first food without adding iron would put babies at risk of anaemia. I’m not sure about the bio-availability of the iron that’s added to cereal but the iron in formula milks is known to be absorbed very poorly. The ‘answer’ (see next questions) is not to choose an inadequate food and then doctor it to make it suitable but to choose a different food! Meat is full of iron, and is a great first food for babies of six months.”
