I have learned that the iron storage of a mature baby having received all his blood from the placenta and the cord lasts well into the second half of the first year of life (in which time a baby should develop the motor skills to be able to eat as well as the wish to eat). Not all babies are motorically fit to eat complementary foods at exactly 26 weeks of age. In my opinion there is no point in forcing food into a baby when the tongue still pushes it out as a reflectory movement just because the baby is 26 weeks old.

The advice is to "offer" complementary foods beginning at the age of 26 weeks, but it does not say which foods to offer or how much of them the baby should actually eat. In Great Britain they say "food before one is just for fun" and afaik they have no higher evidence of iron deficiency anemia than other countries do.

 
Am 31.08.2014 um 16:31 schrieb Jacqueline Levine:

> It's generally true that for the first 6 months, term babies have iron
> stores that they were born with and will use up gradually over that period
> of  time. That's if their umbilical cords were not clamped too soon at birth
> and they got the full complement of the blood that belongs to them! And the
> amount of iron in breast milk is in perfect proportion to complement the
> baby's stored iron. Any other iron taken into the baby's stomach will
> interfere with the functioning of the lactoferrin. But the iron "storage" is
> all used up by 6 mos. Newborns  with no "stores" from hasty cord clamping
> can be iron deficient into their first year.but are there any studies on how
> and when to do iron supplementing  in an exclusively bf babe? 
> 
> 
> 
> The newborn gut is permeable for about 6 mos as well,  so that bm is the
> only food that a baby's stomach can healthily digest. That's why we wait til
> about 6 mos to start food, when the baby's gut becomes mature enough to
> begin to be able to digest food, and that's when the iron stores run out, so
> foods begin to provide iron at this point to complement the  iron in bm.  Up
> until then, breast milk has just the right amount of iron.  But after 6 mos
> there's no more "storage", and no need for it.the baby can now eat foods
> that have iron, and continue to get iron in the correct amounts from breast
> milk.
> 
> 
> 
> If a ebf  baby gets iron from an outside source before 6 mos.like iron in
> supplemental formula, it's true that the lactoferrin in bm is bound and no
> longer functions as a protective element. But "storage" is one question  and
> supplementing  is another, no?  I hope I've addressed the right question
> here.
> 
> 
> 
> Best,
> 
> Jackie Levine
> 
> 
> 
> 
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