At six months, the iron they were born with runs out.
A six page guide to building your baby's plate. The foods, the iron and zinc in each serve, how to help them absorb it, and what to look for if something is not quite right.
Where should we send it?
Six pages, free.
- Built on NHMRC and FSANZ figures
- Iron and zinc listed per serve
- Allergy introduction follows ASCIA
What is in the guide
Six pages, in five parts. Part two is the food table: fifteen foods, with the iron and zinc in a serve a baby would plausibly eat.
The plate, and absorbing it
- What iron and zinc each do, and why the targets are what they are, with the daily figures for birth to six months and seven to twelve months
- Fifteen everyday foods with the iron and zinc in a real serve, from beef mince through to ground pumpkin seeds, and an easy way to serve each one
- Why the iron target looks so high, and why aiming for an iron-rich food at most meals beats counting milligrams
- The four things that change how much your baby actually absorbs, including which drink to hold off on until twelve months
The gut, and keeping it safe
- Signs that can point to low iron or low zinc, and the circumstances that make each more likely
- Why food comes before any iron supplement, and what to ask your GP for instead
- How solids reshape your baby's gut bacteria, and why the same plate does both jobs
- Choking and allergy safety, how to introduce the common allergy foods, and the signs that mean emergency rather than a phone call
She is eating three meals a day. Is any of it doing anything?
Babies are born with an iron store that lasts roughly six months. After that, food has to take over, and it has to do it at the point when growth is fastest and milk alone can no longer keep up. Zinc follows a similar pattern, with the amount in breastmilk falling after the first few months, which is normal.
The daily target for iron from seven months is 11 mg, which startles most parents when they first see it next to a baby-sized meal. It is set that high because only around a tenth of iron is absorbed from a vegetarian diet, and under a fifth from a diet including animal foods.
Which is why the guide gives you foods rather than arithmetic. An iron-rich food at most meals, paired with the things that help it absorb, gets you there without anyone weighing anything.
The same plate does two jobs
Starting solids is the single biggest change your baby's gut bacteria go through in the first year. The community shifts from the milk-fed one it has had since birth towards something closer to an adult pattern, and what you put on the plate is most of what decides how that goes.
The useful part is that the foods carrying the iron and zinc are largely the same foods that feed those bacteria. Legumes, vegetables, wholegrains and a range of colours across the week do both at once, so there is no separate gut plan to run alongside the iron one.
The guide covers what changes and when, and the part of it worth protecting, particularly after a caesarean birth or a course of antibiotics.
Why we made it
Starting solids comes with a great deal of advice about textures, timing and gagging, and almost none about what the food is actually for. Iron and zinc are the two that matter most in this window, and they are the two nobody mentions until a blood test comes back low.
So the guide is built around a table. Fifteen foods, the iron and zinc in a serve your baby would plausibly eat, and a way to serve each one that does not require a separate meal. Figures come from the FSANZ Australian Food Composition Database, and the targets from the NHMRC Nutrient Reference Values.
It also says when to go straight to your GP. If your baby was premature, or you were low in iron through the pregnancy, ask about an iron check rather than trying to solve it with lentils.
Send me the guide
Free, six pages.
General information only for parents and carers. It does not replace advice from your GP, child health nurse or dietitian, and it is not a guide to supplementing your baby. Nutrient targets are from the NHMRC Nutrient Reference Values. Allergy introduction guidance follows ASCIA. © The Family Naturopath, The KAN Clinic.