Guest guest Posted April 26, 2003 Report Share Posted April 26, 2003 Hi, I'm 'newish' to this list - have been reading messages for a few weeks, but have little time to participate. We live in Northern New South Wales, Australia. My diminutive daughter is 20 months old and an extremely fussy eater. We are vegans, but she currently refuses to eat any vegetables other than raw carrot. She has recently been prescribed iron tonic after test showed that she was quite low. She showed no physical symptoms so I tried to address it through diet. When she stopped eating the only 2 meals with iron in them that she had liked (lentil or kidney bean dishes) and started to seem a little less energetic than usual, I decided to try the iron tonic. She had been given a general appetite tonic with some iron in it before with no ill effect, so when she started having very loose bowel motions, that were often very dark in colour, I thought it was a tummy bug. As soon as it clicked with me that it might be the iron, I cut it out and hey presto - normal motions again. So be careful with iron tonics. I had only heard that it could cause constipation, not the opposite. At one stage I was quite concerned about her growth and was referred to a paedatritian. Whilst I was waiting for the appointment, I consulted a dietitian specialising in vegan diets. She gave me cause for unnecessary panic. Saying my daughter should be drinking 500ml of soy per day for calcium (she drank that much in breast milk at the time), and suggested that she would have numerous other deficiencies due to her poor eating/appetite that could cause her growth to slow. However when I saw the non-vegan paedatritian he put out minds at rest. He wasn't at all concerned about her diet, and thought that her growth wasn't that far behind, given the size of my partner and myself and the growth patterns in my partners families. Now I don't worry so much about her diet - but I do wish she would eat some veggies! At least she loves breakfast cereal, bread with hommous, and fruit! Karen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 29, 2003 Report Share Posted April 29, 2003 Karen One thing that helped me get my son to try different things was to let him think it was 'mama's food'. At that age, he wanted whatever I had, even vegetables. The more off limits I made it seem, the more interested he was. Once I let him try it, he sometimes loved it, sometimes not, but I never forced him after he tried it. My son loved (and still does) kale sauteed with olive oil and kikkoman soy sauce. Have you tried her with seaweed? My son loves that as well...I believe certain types are higher in iron than others. Also, raisins... Welcome! Madeline >Karen Bevis <karen > > " " > Re Iron issues >Sat, 26 Apr 2003 22:12:11 +1000 > >Hi, I'm 'newish' to this list - have been reading messages for a few >weeks, but have little time to participate. We live in Northern New >South Wales, Australia. My diminutive daughter is 20 months old and an >extremely fussy eater. We are vegans, but she currently refuses to eat >any vegetables other than raw carrot. > >She has recently been prescribed iron tonic after test showed that she >was quite low. She showed no physical symptoms so I tried to address it >through diet. When she stopped eating the only 2 meals with iron in >them that she had liked (lentil or kidney bean dishes) and started to >seem a little less energetic than usual, I decided to try the iron >tonic. She had been given a general appetite tonic with some iron in it >before with no ill effect, so when she started having very loose bowel >motions, that were often very dark in colour, I thought it was a tummy >bug. As soon as it clicked with me that it might be the iron, I cut it >out and hey presto - normal motions again. So be careful with iron >tonics. I had only heard that it could cause constipation, not the >opposite. > >At one stage I was quite concerned about her growth and was referred to >a paedatritian. Whilst I was waiting for the appointment, I consulted a >dietitian specialising in vegan diets. She gave me cause for >unnecessary panic. Saying my daughter should be drinking 500ml of soy >per day for calcium (she drank that much in breast milk at the time), >and suggested that she would have numerous other deficiencies due to her >poor eating/appetite that could cause her growth to slow. However when >I saw the non-vegan paedatritian he put out minds at rest. He wasn't at >all concerned about her diet, and thought that her growth wasn't that >far behind, given the size of my partner and myself and the growth >patterns in my partners families. > >Now I don't worry so much about her diet - but I do wish she would eat >some veggies! At least she loves breakfast cereal, bread with hommous, >and fruit! > >Karen > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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