Iron Deficiency in Infants

I’ve been thinking a lot about iron lately. At River’s 9-month check-up, his hemoglobin level was a little under the desired levels (10.7 vs. 11-13). The doctor suggested we give him fortified cereal twice a day and get some liquid vitamins with iron.

“Can’t I just give him some more meat?” I asked, a couple of times before the doctor acknowledged that giving him meat would help too.

River has had a largely vegetable diet to date because we feed him what we have and this summer, we have had a bounty of vegetables. He’s eaten all the veggies, including iron-rich ones like kale and broccoli. He also usually eats fortified cereal for breakfast (I’m giving it to him until we run out, then I’ll switch to non-baby food). And he drinks 2-3 bottles of iron-containing formula a day.

I looked online to see which foods contain a lot of iron. Meats, beans and greens led the list. I resolved to try to get more meat into his diet. And I would skip the vitamin drops. It just seemed wrong to me, given the bounteous and healthy diet that he eats, to think that I need to purchase a special product for him to meet his nutritional needs. What is wrong with nature if he can’t get it from his food? Or what is wrong with the guidelines?

Then I read about the importance of iron in the development of brain function and cognitive skills. I read that if levels are too low early on that the developmental delays couldn’t be made up. I could damage him for life. I began to worry, seriously, if it was a mistake to not get him the drops.

A few days later, a discussion began on the online parenting group I belong to. It turned out that a lot of the parents on that list were told their babies iron levels were low – especially those that were breastfeeding more than six months. They wrote about how the iron stores a baby is born with start to deplete around six months and how the levels of iron in breastmilk are low. They were told to use the drops too. Some did and others did it only sporadically and their kids still reached the desired hemoglobin levels in time.

Then the discussion turned to evolution and why should iron levels be low if a baby is breastfeeding and why should that be a problem if this what evolution provided. They talked about the negative effects of iron – how bacteria need iron to latch on to and that perhaps lower levels of iron reduce a baby’s susceptibility to disease.


At least two people recommended the book The Survival of the Sickest by Sharon Moalem. I got the audio version and began listening to it immediately. One thing I learned early on in the book is that breastmilk contains lactopheron, a protein that combines with iron, preventing bacteria from feeding on it. At the time when I’m starting to doubt how useful it is to keep breastfeeding, that in itself made me think it’s worth giving River at least some breastmilk for as long as I can.

The book describes the author as a “maverick scientist.” I think it sounds like just the book for me and I can’t wait to finish it. This guy is finishing his MD and has a Ph.D. in human physiology and neurogenetics/evolutional science.

I’m not so into fringe theories. I want to see scientific evidence to back up hypotheses. But I also feel that the medical establishment doesn’t welcome a lot of questioning, especially questions that drive down profits in the industry. An intelligent, thoughtful person who shows evidence but is willing to go against the grain is someone I’m very interested in listening to.
In the meantime, I temporarily feel better about going with my instincts and skipping the drops. I made River scrambled egg yolks for breakfast, and a fantastic spaghetti squash with lots of meat sauce for lunch. I think he will be just fine.

Our Vaccine Compromise

I admit that when River was first born, I didn’t think too much about the vaccines. Despite the controversy, I figured I’d gone through the schedule just fine and I expected we’d follow the recommended guidelines. So we did the Hep B shot at birth. And we did the 2-month-old series.

To my surprise, the day he got the five shots at two months old was the worst day of his life so far. At the time of the shots, his cries mixed with fear, shock and surprise as he was priced not once, but again and again and again, as if to ask, how could you do this to me? That afternoon, he cried inconsolably. Even a pediatric nurse who was helping us out was unable to settle him. He needed infant Tylenol, but lots of love and soothing. At that point, I began to research vaccines.

I found most of the information I found online to be biased somehow. The anti-vaccine people seem to like to scare parents. And the pro-vaccine people like to scare parents the other way.

I found The Vaccine Book, by Dr. Sears, to be a pretty balanced account. I appreciated the great detail it went into on each vaccine. And I appreciated that different schedules were provided based on parent’s concern.

Based on my readings and discussions I had with researchers at the University of North Carolina, I felt that the risk most likely didn’t come from any particular vaccine, but from putting so many vaccines at once into such an immature immune system.

Given that my husband is strongly pro-vaccine, that I travel a lot and therefore have more exposure to various illnesses (and wanted to be able to bring River with me) and that I had concerns about the number of vaccines given, this is the compromise agreement we reached·:

• We give only vaccine at a time, spaced out in the time before the next round begins. We did them one at a time so I could see which ones bothered him. If time, distance or the co-pays were an issue, I’d do two at a time, with no more than one live virus given at once. But since we live ear the doctors, have the time, and can afford the $15 co-pay, we’ll stay with one at a time as long as it’s practical.
• We give two doses of infant vitamin C (I originally bought it at Whole Foods, but found it cheaper at http://www.vitacost.com/) on the day before, the day of, and the day after a vaccine.
• River receives breastmilk prior to and immediately after receiving a vaccine.

Some say that getting so many shots individually increases the amount the baby
cries overall. This hasn’t been true for us. He receives some shots without crying at all. For others he cries a matter of seconds. I think the heavy crying at his two month shots was due not so much to the pain, but to the surprise that we’d allow him to be hurt again and again.

Every family will come up with the plan that works for them. For us, this plan has provided a good balance between protection from disease and minimizing the risks of vaccines.