Iron and your 1 year old

so now your baby is one and it’s time to worry about Iron. Am I worried? Nope! Mister Caliger had avocado and egg for lunch. Both contain iron. Caliger isn’t a big fan of avocado but this is how I sneak it in. This would be good for breakfast as well.

First lets talk about foods that are rich in iron! Foods your baby needs to be eating! In future posts I can show you how to easily get these in your babies diet but we will start with avocado and eggs.

Here is a list of iron rich foods

Meat:

Beef
Lamb
Ham
Turkey
Chicken
Veal
Pork
Dried beef
Liver
Liverwurst
Eggs (any style)

Seafood:

Shrimp
Clams
Scallops
Oysters
Tuna
Sardines
Haddock
Mackerel

Vegetables:

Spinach
Sweet potatoes
Peas
Broccoli
String beans
Beet greens
Dandelion greens
Collards
Kale
Chard

Breads:

White bread (enriched)
Whole wheat bread
Enriched pasta
Wheat products
Bran cereals
Corn meal
Oat cereal
Cream of Wheat
Rye bread
Enriched rice

Fruits:

Strawberries
Watermelon
Raisins
Dates
Figs
Prunes
Prune juice
Dried apricots
Dried peaches

Beans and other foods:

Tofu:

Beans (kidney, garbanzo, or white, canned)
Tomato products (e.g., paste)
Dried peas
Dried beans
Lentils
Instant breakfast
Corn syrup
Maple syrup
Molasses

Another good way to add iron to your child’s diet is to use an iron skillet to make and prepare your meals. Depending on what you’re cooking the iron levels will be different. I’m sure at some point I will do a post about how I’m in love with my iron skillet! It honestly makes life so much easier and I love that I’m adding iron to our diet but using it.

What you need :

1 egg
1 piece of bread
An avocado
Salt-and-pepper to taste
cheese either sliced or shredded

I crack open eggs on my skillet. I don’t have a picture of it but I eventually flip them and make a over easy egg.
I make toast

Spread the avocado onto the toast

Top with egg

Top with cheese and broil at 350 degrees.

degrees.

It looks like this! Sometimes I will throw tomatoes on it before the egg. If I was making this for an older child I probably would make a sandwich. Everything but the cheese contains iron.