Why Iron is Important and How To Get More of It
Many people are now familiar that iron deficiency is associated with fatigue. Unfortunately, a lot of women are not strangers to that light headedness and desire to fall asleep at 11am even after a good night's sleep. But what about younger kids?
Studies have put the iron deficiency anaemia prevalence at about 8% in Australia for children under 5 years old, which is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies, alongside vitamin D. Iron binds to our red blood cells and allows the transport of oxygen around the body. So without enough iron coming from your child’s diet to support that role, your child is going to be more fatigued, moody and irritable. What you may not have known is that iron has many other roles in your body, including:
Immune system function
Cognitive development
Energy production
Cell growth and development
Hormone production, including thyroid and growth hormones
So iron deficiency in your child can also lead to stunted growth, cognitive delays, recurring infections, poor appetite, muscle weakness, and more.
Yep… it’s pretty serious.
But it’s also only seriously affecting 8% of children under 5. So chances are, your child is doing okay. But there are also ways to prevent that from happening with a few simple tips and tricks that I have listed for you below.
Use iron fortified foods
Chances are your child loves allllll the foods that are low iron - plain, consistent food that lacks red meat. Your doctor told you to just “feed them more red meat”? Here is why that isn’t the most helpful thing to say. Children 1-3 years need 9mg of iron and children 4-8 years need 10mg, which is 25% more than adult men, only with a much smaller stomach. 100g of red meat has ~ 3-3.5mg of iron per 100g. Most children <5 won’t eat 100g of beef in one sitting or multiple times in a day, so your child will be getting ~2-3mg of iron from red meat. That’s still a big chunk of their needs, but that’s where the fortified foods come in to fill the rest.
2 slices of WonderWhite’s iron enriched bread contains 4.4mg of iron. 2 WeetBix contains 4.2mg of iron. Suddenly, a plain diet contains almost 100% of your child’s iron needs from just 2 foods! Funnily enough, only ½ of a Plantein vegetarian schnitzel contains a whopping 2.6mg of iron, whereas a regular chicken breast only has 0.4mg per 100g. Iron fortified foods are your friend to help get your child’s iron in. This post is not sponsored by any of those brands by the way!
Hmm reading over that again, that was a lot of maths… I apologise. Moving onto the next tip - I swear no more maths now.
Use a Lucky Iron Fish
You might be thinking I am trying to work in some kind of VooDoo magic, but no, this thing is real. If your child loves pasta, stews, soups, curries, or anything saucy, you can use the Lucky Iron Fish or Leaf by Lucky Iron Life to place in your pot while the dish is cooking. The fish/leaf slowly releases iron into your food or pasta water and your child will consume the iron leached from the fish/leaf. It is kind of like cooking with a cast iron pan - which you can also do to improve your child’s dietary iron! See link below for their website:
https://luckyironlife.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopzdcSwY4HKo8i1ej6iZ2PZnNdN53LtzX8DqlvnYybKPadTY482
Again, not sponsored, just a massive fan of the product.
Pair meals with juice (or fruit or an orange/red vegetable)
Vitamin C is an important nutrient to improve iron absorption. This is because vitamin C binds to the iron during digestion and helps to facilitate its absorption into the body. This is particularly important when there are other nutrients in the meal that impede iron absorption, like calcium. Eg/ if you have just served a spaghetti bolognese with cheese (because who doesn’t love a cheesy pasta), the calcium from the cheese is going to lower the amount of iron your body takes up. But by adding extra vitamin C from juice, it is like giving the iron a VIP pass through the absorption site, and the calcium won’t have as much of an impact.
Now, I say juice first because a lot of kids I work with don’t eat much fruit or veg. And they may choose to not eat much fruit/veg at a main meal. But often they can make room for a drink and orange juice packs a punch when it comes to vitamin C. Apple juice is not very high in vitamin C, but apple cranberry is. The Woolworths 250mL juice poppers also have vitamin C added and are fairly affordable, so could be a good option for you.
I hope these tips have helped put iron into a bit more context for you. Give these tips a go and if you are struggling to improve your child’s iron intake, please do not hesitate to give me a call on 6362 9806, or email me at orangefeedingclinic@gmail.com.
NOTE: I also want to clarify that if your child has an iron deficiency diagnosed via a blood test, that the above tips WILL NOT bring your child’s iron level up efficiently and you will need to supplement. Please consult your doctor or dietitian for individualised advice.
