1 1/2 Year Old - Anemic

As a child care provider, we buy the food, cook the food and serve the food. It is their responsibilty to eat a little or alot or nothing at all. No pressure on the child over eating. We serve a wide variety of healthy food. We serve a hot home made lunch daily. One littel boy told his Mom, "I want you to cook butternut squash!" Meals and snacks should be 2 hours apart and a meal and a meal 3 hours apart. Do not let your child "graze" from the frig or the cupboards between meals and sancks. Water is so important so encourage water and no juice, etc. during the day. The BRAT diet is great but one has to stick to it. Have your husband eat in another room during this time. Kids may need to see a new food 5-10 times before they will try it. I cooked beets once. Every child said yuk. I cooked it agan two weeks later and cut the beets into a different shape this time. Same thing, YUK! Then I cooked some again but did not serve them any. They asked what I had on my plate and I showed them and said, "Remember how you all don't like beets? They asked for beets, so I gave it to them and they ate it and have ever since. I love to see kids eat healthy and when they are hungry they will eat.
We do have birthday parties and treats for all the holidays.
Today was National Pancake Day. It is so important for children to eat well for their brain growth and body growth.
It might help too if you let your child help you cook. What about Cream of Rice Cereal and he can cut his banana to put on top for now? A child will not stave him or herself. One girl I cared for only ate popcorn, oatmeal, and watermelon. She was a school aged child and would not try anything else. It is so important to give them a wide assortment of foods when they are young. And if Mom and Dad eats it, they will want to be like you.
F.

It is interesting that both of your children were anemic. Has your family ever been genetically tested for celiac disease? Has yourdaughter's B12 been tested too? Gluten intolerance or celiac disease are often the cause of anemia. This condition causes the body to be unable to ABSORB the iron, even if the kids are eating it. Check it out online! Here is an article to get you started.

http://www.gluten.net/downloads/print/Celiac%20Disease%20...
Celiac disease is underdiagnosed in our society. It is unfortunate since it can lead to many other illness and autoimmune disorders. Doctors are hesitant to look into celiac. The ythink it is rare but it isn't. Gluten intolerance is even more common. You might want to do a little reading on the subject and see if any other family members have symptoms. let me know if you need help!

Take care.

If your daughters eat chicken, Costco and Trader Joe's sell a chicken sausage that has spinach, garlic and fontina cheese in it. Also, if they like rice, you can mill and light colored veggie to the size of rice curnels, throw it on top of the rice water, as the rice cooks, the veggies steam. Then, when it is done, stir the veggies into the rice. Veggies that work are cauliflower, yellow squash, zucchini (w/o the skin). Works like a charm on my kids, and I believe I have one of the pickiest eaters alive!

Also, if they like fruit, load them up on it. Serve it with every meal as a treat if they eat the other part of the meal. My pediatrician says that watermelon and beef are also great sources for iron (one of my boys is boarder line anemic).

Iron absorbtion is enhanced greatly by vitamin C. Try giving your daughter vitamin C when she's eating an iron containing food. For example, a cherry tomato salad (with olive oil and basil) and red meat combo. Or, in the a.m., scrambled eggs with fresh squeezed o.j. or a kiwi (kiwis have the most Vitamin C, more than oranges, but you need a real ripe one for most kids). Broccoli has lots of Vitamin C, too. Google foods with iron and Vitamin C, then create your own fancy combinations. She sounds like a pretty good eater and she's young, so she's not going to reject new foods you offer (this comes at about age 3). Also, on her age, she's still young enough to be on a bottle or sippy cup. Are you giving her iron enriched formula milk? Nestle makes a good one, for example. My son didn't like the taste as much as regular Vitamin D whole milk, so I mixed formula and whole milk. However, she could take iron enriched milk for kids of her age category, actually up to age 3. It's got a lot more iron than regular whole milk! Good luck. Lastly, my son tends to like raw veggies much more than cooked ones, and they're packed with vitamins, so try offering red, yellow or orange bell peppers, carrot sticks, cucumber rounds or sticks, cherry tomatos, broccoli or cauliflower (with dip), etc. Hope this helps.

Hi D.,

Sometimes low vit D levels can attribute to anemia. It's worth checking out.

Have you tried doing your cooking in cast iron? This adds iron to the food.

Is your daughter drinking more than 1 gallon of milk per week? If so, this may be the cause according to my pediatrician.

If she's willing to eat oatmeal for breakfast, you can mix big girls oatmeal with baby oatmeal (which is iron fortified). My girls really liked the baby oatmeal mixed with apple sauce or chopped apples (vitamin C helps with iron) and were happy to eat it a few times a week until they were nearly 4.

Other than that just getting them to eat more veggies would really help. I'd look at those cook books that specialize in 'hiding' veggies in foods that kids really like. The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious are both good. I have a friend that uses them to get her hubby to eat his veggies!

Dear D.,
In my experience sometimes anemia isn't a lack of intake of iron, but a lack of an ability to use the iron the body is eating. Our American diets are so poor and we simply do not get the nutrition we need, so they do not function properly. Drs are saying our children will be the first generation that will not survive their parents. There are many reasons for this such as soil depletion which has removed the vitamins and minerals from our soils, chemicals added to our food which inhibit digestion and poison our systems, and we receive sugar, white flour and other nutrition free substances in everything we eat. In others words our bodys are hungry for nutrition in a nation that is becoming increasingly heavy. I had a friend that was terribly anemic during her preganany. She had to raise her iron to have an at home birth that was already paid for. She had no health insurance. She was taking 10 iron suppliments and her iron dropped every week because she could not absorb it. Then she found the whole food concentrated nutrition that we have eaten for four years. She had a huge increase in her blood iron level and delivered at home. We have had increased health in our whole bodies and continue to see new improvements even after four years.
Nutritionalists are saying that our children's generation is the first who will not outlive their parents. I cannot bear to think of this and so I try to help others find this food so they can have such an increased quality of life that we have. If you would like me to answer a question or if you would like to watch a DVD that I give away free to those on Mamasource please contact me at: ###-###-#### or ____@____.com.

Sneaky chef is awesome. If she eats a lot of the same thing this will bring veggie's into her diet without her knowing. It takes a little work, not much, but it will help. Essentially you are pureeing veggie's and putting them in the sauce. Say you make a pizza. You buy the crust, puree, sweet potatoes, or squash and use that for the sauce. Still put cheese etc, on top. Kids don't know the difference becuase it is hidden. It also works for spinach, carrots, broccolit, cauliflower, check out the book. Good luck

They will eat when they are hungry... but if you're worried about what they eat, you could try mixing stuff in a smoothie (straws are magical!). A little spinach in a berry smoothie is barely detectable. You can also try giving stuff fancy names like "Princess Stew" or Magical pie." My son will not eat quesadillas, but he loves cheesy pizzas (same thing!). Mix up the way you serve things: try steamed broccoli with cheese on top, plain, buttered, slightly salted, and raw to see if there is a way they prefer it. Another "trick" is to cut bite-sized pieces and serve with toothpicks (this will depend on your 1 1/2 year old's coordination, too!). And, last suggestion, try serving things with "dip" a little kectchup, peanut butter mixed with honey, salad dressing. Veggies, crackers, and pretzels are all dipable.

Another thing, in case its an issue, is to feed them regularly scheduled meal times without distractions. My kids eat a lot less if the TV is on.

Hi D....

My oldest daughter still to this day will test anemic with the finger poke method...I don't enjoy the torture of a full on blood draw, but I finally had to have one done...her iron levels were fine...the doctor said it was the shape of her cell or something like that(hard to remember, she is 26 now) My daughter ate a wide variety of food also...you might need to do the blood draw to be sure...

T.