I do appreciate that my friends and family are "outliers" and that public 
health policies are not geared towards them. What I see happening, though, 
is that mothers with perfectly healthy, happy, exclusively breastfed babies 
are heavily pressured to start solids by six months, with warnings of dire 
consequences if they don't.

I recognize that the solid foods you mentioned as common "first tastes" are 
not usually seen as causing iron deficiency, but I wonder if ANY 
"non-breastmilk" food, in the immature intestines of a young baby, has the 
potential to irritate the gut lining and potentially cause small amounts of 
bleeding or perhaps inflammation that might lead to malabsorption. Even if 
it didn't happen to every baby, perhaps there are enough who are sensitive 
to affect the statistics.

Teresa 

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